Address—Tim Ruga
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Could we begin the meeting by singing #327?
327.
Lord Jesus, are we one with thee, O height, O depth of love, and crucified and dead with thee now one in heaven above.
Lord Jesus.
Are we?
I understand. Shall come thy glory downstairs.
Let's see if the heart.
God shall deliver the water.
So we asked the Lord's help.
So I'd like to start by turning to well known verse in Acts chapter 17.
Acts 17.
And verse 11.
These were more noble than those in Thessalonica.
And that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and search the scriptures daily whether those things were so.
Now what was it that they were receiving and searching the scriptures for?
You go back a little bit and you see what the apostle Paul was preaching right back at the beginning of the chapter here, and you see that he had been in Thessalonica. And there in verse two it says Paul as his manner was went in unto them, and three Sabbath days reason with them out of the Scriptures opening and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead.
00:05:00
And that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
And so when he got to Berea, he did the same thing. And as Paul was speaking and he was alleging that the Bereans said, OK, we're going to see if what Paul is saying is true. And they opened their own scriptures, which they knew and they looked and they traced there and they saw, yes, this is So what he's saying that Isaiah 53 does indeed speak about the Servant's suffering and that he was.
The sin of those who are guilty, He does indeed speak of that in Chapter 7. He talks about the sign, the virgin conceiving and bringing forth. And there's scripture after Scripture that they could turn to and see that what the apostle was saying was true. It was all there in the Old Testament Scriptures. And of course, for ourselves, we can get a sample of.
The kinds of scriptures they turn to not just the Apostle Paul, but Peter, John, the others.
It's all recorded for us in the book of Acts. They went right back to the Old Testament and proved that this was the one who was promised to come, the Messiah, but more than the Messiah, the one who himself would be God. And so the brains could do that.
And that's not what I want to talk about this afternoon. I want to talk about something that's different from that. There was something that the Bereans, if they received the gospel, could not go back to their scriptures and verify.
And neither can anyone else today for this reason, that it simply isn't in those Old Testament Scriptures. Major truth for us today that is not found there. And that of course, you probably guess. I intend to speak something of the mystery, the truth of the church. This was something new. They didn't know anything about that.
Because it hadn't been revealed, it was a mystery.
And so if you're young here and you know, maybe something about what a mystery is, and we talk about a mystery as being.
Mysterious, you know, you don't know where the plot is going to go. You know, it's kind of fun to read to the end and see what happens, and it doesn't tend to go the way that you would expect. Well, there's some similarity in the Bible, but really the mystery in the Bible, whenever it refers to this word, mystery is talking about something that was previously unknown but now was revealed by God through His Spirit.
And so when we talk about the mystery, there are different mysteries in Scripture, but one of those mysteries is called a great mystery.
In Ephesians chapter 5, the apostle Paul says I speak concerning a great mystery, Christ and the church, and that's really what I have in mind to speak a little bit about that and really just one part of that. That's a huge subject.
And I want to come to why this is important, but first I just wanted to find the terms. The mystery really is what I just referred to Christ.
And the church, and there's two parts to that. The 1St is Christ. And it was entirely unknown in the Old Testament, what you have in Ephesians 110, that there was going to be a whole new order of things where that one who was the Messiah, who was promised he was going to be brought into something far greater than they knew. And that was God was going to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ instead of above all things.
Both things which are in heaven and things which are in earth.
The setting of the Messiah over things on earth was known in the Old Testament, but this place?
That was to be given to him by God was not known there.
Over all things in heaven in which are on earth.
Let alone the fact that there would be people in both of those spheres? Or what's the point of setting him over them?
And so that is the first part of the mystery. The second part is the church. And the church is just, in a word, and that God is saving people from Jews and Gentiles, bringing them together into one body, the body of Christ, which is destined to be and is not just his body, but his bride.
And he is going to share all that glory in a coming day.
With this vessel, the church, His body and his bride, we're going to be put on display with him and we're going to share in that. You say I've heard that in the meetings before, and good, I'm sure you have, and you should because it's an important truth.
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But the problem is that we sometimes hear other things, and I just wanted to go over this a little bit so that we would get a sense of why this is important and really what it is, and tend to take up one part of it today. I'll get to that in a minute. But first of all, I want to stress this point because it's absolutely denied among many Christians today.
That the mystery of the church.
Is something that you cannot find in the Old Testament.
And so let's just look over at some verses in Colossians chapter one.
Colossians 1.
We'll start in the middle of verse 23.
Says the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard the.
Incidentally, that's not the mystery. The gospel is never the mystery in Scripture. Some say it is, but you'll see it distinguished here, which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I Paul, and made a minister, who now rejoiced in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his.
Bodies, it should be just body, but his body's sake for his body which is.
The church. And he says whereof I am made a minister like he was made a minister of the gospel in verse 23. He's made a minister to the body of Christ, which we are told here is the church.
We are of, he says. I have made a minister according to the dispensation or administration of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill or fill up the word of God.
Now this verse is saying that Paul was given something special to fill up of the word of God.
And in fact, when you go and you look at the truth of the Church of God.
This mystery, you find that however many other apostles and prophets, and we're going to come to that in a minute, in the New Testament, knew about it and spoke of it. Only Paul wrote about it.
He's the only one except for what is recorded, that the Lord Jesus said.
And so Paul says right here very plainly, it's given to me to fill up the word of God.
And he says even the mystery. So I'm going to go back and justice read that again because I want us to see it. The end of verse 24, we're going to skip verse 25 says.
There his body, which is the church.
Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His Saints. And so this is the mystery, at least that part of it that I wish to talk about today, the part of the bride, the body of Christ, the Church. And this verse tells us very clearly.
At the end here it says that it was.
Hid from ages and generations, but now?
It's made manifest to his Saints.
Now it is it was hid before and I'm stressing this because.
A great many, perhaps most, Christians deny what this first plainly says, and I want you to see where it says. Now there's some that might say, well, maybe it was head, but still they spoke about it, even if they didn't know what it was.
But that's not true either. Let's turn to Romans chapter 16.
It's as if the Spirit of God took this up from different viewpoints to cut out all of the arguments that are being used today.
Romans 16.
And verse 25.
Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel.
And notice the word and there. If you look in some modern translations, you won't find it, but it belongs there.
And because the gospel is not the same.
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According to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery.
And I want you to notice what it says now, which was kept secret since the world began. If you read that in the J&D translation, it says as to which silence has been kept since the world began.
Not a thing was said there. There was number hint of the mystery.
In the Old Testament, it was something that was completely hidden as we started with, they didn't know it, They didn't speak about it like the gospel and they didn't know exactly what it all meant. They were searching to figure out what that was. Tells us that and Peter, right? And it was revealed to them that they it wasn't for them. But that isn't the case with the mystery. It just wasn't there at all.
Silence was kept. Well, you might say, even if silence was kept, it was hidden in in the scriptures.
It's still there. You can still find it. Now that we know about it, you can go back to the Old Testament and you can find it. I'm not saying you can't find some types. Certainly we can. We see right from Genesis with the Adam and Eve, we see a type. But anything about the mystery, what was going to happen is just not found there. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 2.
And verse 9.
Of course they maybe will start there unto me, who I'm less than the least of All Saints. Is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world has been hid in God.
You see, it's not hidden in the Old Testament.
It's not buried there, to be found by us who know, As if somehow.
It was there all along, and now we're a continuation in some way of something that was there. No, it was hidden. God, it just simply wasn't known before.
And so these three scriptures really help us to see what that is. And there's more as well, even just before these ones that we'll look at in a minute. But before we do, we're talking about a mystery. We're talking about Christ in the church. And like we said.
This has often been taught in the assembly.
Why do we spend the time to do it today?
How can it be that important to take up a whole address on at a conference?
Well, if for no other reason, just to go over it again would be enough. In my view, these are important truths and those who love the Word of God, who would love to hear what God has to say about something that's important to himself. But I actually have a burden about some of the errors that come in because these things are not well understood or well known, or sometimes we just hear them and it bounces off you. Everybody knows that, and then you go.
In your life and suddenly you run into other Christians and they're speaking a different way and because you never got this rooted and grounded in your own heart.
That you're getting shaken and it happens. It happens a lot.
I have listened to podcasts, and I know there's a lot of podcasts that are readily available to every single one of us who's got access to the Internet. And when you go on to these podcasts and you listen to some of these men, you find out.
A They're very gifted.
B. Many of them are very godly.
When you say those two things, first because can't hide it, and we're one with them in the body of Christ. Dear, dear believers.
That a lot of them do not understand these things. They have a whole different view of it. And because of that view of it, they go on and they speak things and they give practical ministry. And of that practical ministry, 90 to 98% of it is excellent.
And it's that 10 to 2% of it, whatever that small percent that depends on the understanding of things that is not according to Scripture. And you listen to that and it goes in and gradually you start saying, well, where is that really? And hopefully you'll come back and ask the question and get it right. And you can see it from Scripture.
But it's my exercise just to try to present a little bit of this.
This afternoon so that we can get grounded ahead of time so that when that comes, you say, Oh yes, I know something of what that is. I know that this is not found in the Old Testament. I know that this is something about Christ in the church and it's different from Israel, very different, as different as night and day. Even though Israel is going to have those who are ultimately saved, those who by faith are going to come into all the blessing.
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On earth one day, and many of them in heaven.
And those in the church, they're going to come into a different sphere of blessing. That's what we want to understand and know and not just hear that some brethren teach this, but this is what the Word of God says. Another point.
If you understand this truth about the Church of God and what the mystery is, it has to do then with how you view the world around you.
And that comes down to whether you get involved in politics. Are we people that are part of this world or are we simply ambassadors for Christ here? What is our role here? Are we to come in and change this world? And that has to do with the gospel itself. There's many Christians that I have known.
That love the Lord Jesus Christ. But when they go out, they don't preach the gospel. In fact, I have known some of them. When they hear those who go out and preach that man is lost and condemned under the condemnation of God for his sin and they need a Savior, they think that's too harsh because that's not the right way you need to go and you've got to affect the culture and you've got to Christianize people and bring them to faith. And after a while maybe they will come to that understanding.
A very different idea.
And many, many hold those views.
We go out and we preach Christ crucified and that man needs a savior and we do that because we understand where we are and this is a big part of that. What the church is another thing that we.
Need to look at is what our citizenship is definitely. We just mentioned that a minute ago. Are we people of earth, are people of heaven? And I want to just look and see in a few minutes again what the scripture says about that. I'm just part of it, but another one is the ground of gathering itself.
You know, if you don't really understand what the church is, it won't be long before something will come along and challenge you as to why it is you're even meeting with a few Christians that you're meeting with. Why not just join in with other Christians and.
The ground of gathering is very important. It's why we meet as we do, and that's based on this truth and an understanding of it. And if we don't have that, if we give it up or it's just not there to begin with, it won't be long before perhaps some wind will come along that shakes us a little bit and we're going to end up going away. And so the ground of gathering has to do with the fact that there is one body and there's a practical carrying out of what?
You don't see that or you think that the church is just a continuation of Israel, and the next thing you do, you know that that's not just important enough to stay with those few Christians you're with.
Another one is the Rapture.
The rapture depends on the fact that there is a heavenly people and our heavenly Bridegroom is about to come and take us home. If there's only one people of God for all time, and that one people of God has one gospel, and that gospel is simply received by faith, that's true enough, by the way. No one ever.
Came into blessing before God. Without faith, by faith, without faith, it's impossible to please him. That's common.
But the idea that there's only one people of God and there's no such thing as the earthly people and the heavenly people.
That will lead us into the whole idea that there's two comings or two parts of the second coming of Christ. What's the point? He's just going to come once and judge the wicked, and he's going to bring everyone into common blessing. And so the rapture itself and future events are lost.
Another point is, well that's five points I listed. I think that's probably good enough. We could go on with these points. Maybe later on we'll come back to a few more of them that would be good to take up that aren't well seen if you lose this.
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But I want to go back now and justice continue with this thought of what the mystery was and how it was revealed. Here. We've seen that Paul was Speaking of it. It was revealed to him and he was the one given to record it in the scriptures. But if you remember back in.
Well, let's just go up actually and read there. We didn't read those verses yet.
If we read from verse three it says how by revelation.
He made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote before in a few words. This is Paul just mentioning how that he was given to record that. Wherefore when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men. There it is again. That's the fourth time we read that, isn't it?
As it is now revealed unto his holy apostles.
And prophets by the Spirit. Now who are they? I hope we understand who the apostles are and the apostles of the Church. The 12 That we have in Acts chapter one. And then continued on after that.
They were the ones who are witnesses of the Lord in his resurrection. They were the necessary beginning. But then here it speaks also of prophets. And who are these prophets? Are they Old Testament prophets? No, they're not.
These are New Testament prophets, so if we understood those verses that we began with, we understand.
That these are not Old Testament prophets. It couldn't be. The mystery was completely hidden. God there. Those prophets of the Old Testament, when they prophesied, they spoke about Christ and Israel and coming blessing. That would be Christ primarily through Israel, but also to the nations. They spoke about an earthly sphere of things. That was the scope of their ministry. It did not go on to what we have here.
As with these verses plainly told us four times over.
Stressing that because it's denied.
But understand that we've just had it four times. Look at the verses again.
Let's look again and see who these prophets are. Just back to Ephesians 2.
It says.
Verse 19 Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints of the household of God. And so this is speaking about the Gentiles who had been brought in. They weren't any longer strangers to the Jews who were near. Now they were together. They were fellow citizens and part of that household of God. That's what they were now one.
That was brought out in the verses immediately preceding this. We're not going to take the time to go through them.
Which is referring to it. But look what it says in verse 20. It says and are built upon the foundation.
Of the apostles and prophets Jesus.
Himself, Jesus Christ himself being the chief coroner Stone.
And so we have here apostles and prophets that are part of that foundation. That foundation is something that the Lord Jesus is the chief cornerstone. You lay that first. All the rest form that foundation with him. These are New Testament apostles and prophets. And that's important because.
When this truth, so we don't know if an assembly was formed at Berea, let's assume it was, I think probably so from what the spirit of fog says there. And so when this truth of the mystery eventually was preached at Berea.
And they open up their Bibles and said it's not here.
These apostles and prophets could say, yes, it isn't there, but we know that it's true. We know that it's true because the same truth has been revealed to us. We've learned it. Paul was given to write it, but we had this same revelation, and we can verify that this is the word of God.
That this is the truth of God. But it's even more than that, that they could say. And that's really what I want to take up in the rest of this meeting.
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And says here, Jesus Christ himself being the chief.
Cornerstone, if you realize from the grammar of this verse, it's including him with the apostles and prophets.
And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus was. He was an apostle. You go to Hebrews chapter 3 and you find out that he's the apostle and the high priest of our profession. And so the Lord Jesus apostle means sent one, right? And these twelve were sent and then and the Lord Jesus.
When he sent them, he said, As my father hath sent me, Even so send I you. John. Chapter 20.
And so the Lord Jesus was that first sent one as an apostle, and he's included here. He's the apostle and great high priest of our profession. And as to the prophet, he certainly was a prophet as well. You read back in Deuteronomy, you find that Moses spoke and said that another prophet like unto me. So the Lord your God send unto you, and him you will hear.
And then this is referred to in Acts chapter 5, plainly stating that this is the Lord Jesus Christ. If that wouldn't be clear to anyone, the Spirit of God connects that up to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the great prophet of our God, the one who spoke out the mind of God like no one else did except those who came after Him and spoke His words when He was now speaking from heaven as we have in Hebrews.
And the Lord Jesus on earth was a great.
Apostle and Prophet.
And what I want to suggest here this afternoon is that what was given to Paul about the church and the mystery was previously stated at least in kernel form by the Lord Jesus Christ. That is in its root form, the Lord Jesus presented it. And I think it's helpful to see that we could go on a long time to to look at all the New Testament truth that there is on this subject.
Of course, the apostle Paul's pen, but I wanted just to go back and see where the Lord Jesus presented these things and so.
When this was in our hypothetical example presented in the assembly of Berea, and they and the apostles and the prophets who may have been there could say, well, yes, this was revealed to us too. They could also point back in the Lord Jesus also said it.
It wasn't in the Old Testament scriptures, but it is in those scriptures that we have now.
It's clearly established and by the Lord Himself. So let's just go back. I want to look at the 1St place.
The church is mentioned Matthew chapter.
16.
And you'll see these verses all verify what we have presented in Ephesians and the truth that you've no doubt hurt before.
Matthew 16.
And verse 15 Jesus came, and when Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, AM?
Some say that thou art John the Baptist, and some Elias and others Jeremias were one of the prophets.
He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am in? Simon Peter answered, and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven, and so the Lord Jesus.
When he asked this question, I think it's helpful to understand that he had been rejected already by this point.
And Simon Peter then confesses who he is, and he says how art the Christ.
That is, that he was the Messiah. He was the one.
Who was promised? Peter didn't deny that, he didn't even doubt it. Israel had denied it. And he further says Thou art the Son of a living God. This is tremendous and not just that the Lord Jesus was a man come to fulfill the prophecies regarding the Messiah, the Messiah himself, but also that he was the Son of God, He was divine.
Peter understood that, and then the Lord says his Father in heaven had revealed it to him. Tremendous revelation.
And it was upon this confession that the Lord Jesus then.
Gives Peter the revelation of something that Peter knew nothing about. It had never been spoken about before. He says, verse 18. I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church in the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
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So there's going to be a church the Lord says I will build didn't exist yet. He says I'll build it. And he says I'm going to build it on this rock. That rock, of course, is the foundation for the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ is going to build. And we already saw what that was.
It was the Lord Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone and.
He built that on the confession of himself, who he was.
And the.
Messiah or the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Anointed.
And that's what the church is built on. That is the rock. Of course, we emphasize that because there's a major.
System of men that denies that and says the church was built on Peter and therefore we know that they're built on the wrong foundation.
The true Church of God was built on the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. That was the rock.
And so it's a future thing, and the Lord Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
And that made it very different as well, because if you turn to the book of Hosea and you started looking at what it says here about Israel.
And what Jehovah says to Israel, he says, Lo, am I? It was a time when.
And the gates of hell prevailed against God's earthly people. Thank God later on it says am I so low? Am I means not my people? God disowned them.
But then it says he's going to take them up again. Am I my people? And.
This is different.
This is, of course, the rock. The gates of hell will not prevail against the rock. Neither would those gates of hell, Satan and death prevail against that which the Lord Jesus Christ is going to build on that rock. The church is going to go on tremendous thing, a new thing, new revelation for Peter and all the disciples who heard it. Now let's go to the second one.
Matthew 18.
So what we had in Matthew 16.
Again answers the question as to whether you find the church in the Old Testament or whether the church is Israel. It could not be because it didn't exist yet and Israel had existed for a long time by the time the Lord Jesus said those words.
Matthew 18 is the second time the church is mentioned.
And beginning with verse 15, he says, and it's so interesting here he's taking off a case of of.
Forgiveness or not forgiveness, you get to that, but of discipline and dealing with someone trespass, he says, if thy brother trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone. If he shall hear thee, thou has gained thy brother, and if he will not hear thee.
Then take with the one or two more in the mouth of two or three witnesses.
Every word may be established, and if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church. Now that's a different body, isn't it? There's such a thing as a church. And here it's speaking about the fact that there's going to be a local expression of of this church. There's going to be a church that the Lord Jesus is going to build, but there's going to be somehow a local expression of it that if there was such a case as we have described here.
At these ones that this person could go and tell it to the church.
Which is the assembly, that local expression of the church.
And it says.
These shall neglect to hear.
Them telleth unto the Church. But if he neglects to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.
Fairly I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree, on earth is touching anything, that they shall ask.
It shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together unto or in My name, there am I in the midst of them. And So what we have here is the Lord Jesus speaking about an action being taken by this local expression of the assembly, which is defined as two or three.
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Gathered together in his name.
And that's what the assembly is in its local expression, two or three that are gathered together. We won't take the time to establish this, but the Scriptures are clear. They are gathered by the Spirit of God to the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as such, they are the local expression of that assembly. That's what the Lord Jesus is teaching here. And they have His authority because they are gathered unto His name. And that is why in verse 18.
Then that whatsoever they would bind on earth would be bound in heaven. Now think about that for a minute.
That verse implies unity of action by all those who own the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of a thing is bound on earth in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, then he says here is found in heaven. And if something is found in heaven, then all those who own his authority, wherever they may be.
Will act together with respect to that thing. They won't just go and say, well, we're just a local group of Christians over here and we're going to do our own things. That's what they decided over there. Not at all.
And say, well, that was found in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth. It was bound in heaven.
And because we recognize the Lord Jesus and his authority, if it's bound in heaven, we're going to submit to it and we act together with them.
This verse these verses necessarily require.
Unity of action in the assembly. But they show that that assembly is not separate from the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's gathered together unto his name, and he says, I am there in the midst of them. He's in the midst of it. He's gone away to heaven. But this is a tremendous thing we find, and a precious privilege as well. We often take this part of it, and rightly so. Even if the example given is of discipline, the blessed fact is where two or three are gathered together unto the name of the Lord Jesus.
He himself is present there in the midst.
Wonderful truth and we recognize that we see Him as being in the midst by faith and we act according to it. If we believe that, then it has an effect on what we do now. I want to just continue on here. We just have a few minutes left. But I said this implies unity of action. The Lord went much further than that and spoke of.
Actual practical unity.
And I'd like to go look at that right now in John chapter 10.
John 10 is a chapter about the Good Shepherd.
And justice to summarize the beginning of this chapter. The Lord Jesus presents himself as the Good Shepherd he was, as you have right through the Old Testament, this shepherd of Israel beginning in Genesis chapter 49. Her brother read another one of those verses this morning from Zechariah. The Lord Jesus was the shepherd who was smitten.
But he was a shepherd of Israel. And right through this he presents that the Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. That's when he was smitten and he explains how that he was that one. There's a fold and he's the true door to that sheepfold, and he's the Good Shepherd, the true shepherd. The other ones are not. They're hirelings, they're imposters. They're those who come in another way. And after going through and explaining how the Lord Jesus himself was that true shepherd.
Of Israel. At the very end of that, he talks about something different.
And it's wonderful to see it.
Verse 20, Verse 16 he says other sheep I have which are not of this fold, I fold with Israel. He says there's other sheep that are not of that fold, of this fold them also I must bring. See, He hadn't brought the Gentiles in yet. They weren't there. He was not sent except to the lost sheep of the House of Israel when he came.
In order for the Gentiles to be brought in, in order for the mystery to happen, for the church to be formed, he must first die, and then he must go to heaven, and the Spirit of God must be given. We'll see that in a minute, too.
00:45:09
Says here he says them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one.
Should be flock our Bibles say one fold. That's not true. It's not going to be.
A new improved version of Israel. Just the people of God the way it had been. Not at all. That should be one flock. There shall be one flock and one shepherd. And so the Lord is talking about others who weren't of Israel. And who could that be? It's very clear. It's the Gentiles and they were going to be brought together and there was going to be 1 flock now. It wasn't going to be this fold anymore. It was going to be a single flock.
Made-up of those who are of that full Jews and the others who weren't Gentiles.
And they're going to be one and there's going to be 1 shepherd. Now that stops a little bit short of the full mystery, doesn't it? But it gets awfully close. They could go back and say, Oh yes, the Lord Jesus spoke about this, maybe not in exactly the same terms that he verified what this is. And so the Lord Jesus identified it here. Whether they understood any of it at that time, I doubt it.
But the Lord laid it out, and they could go back to it.
Now I'm going to just see another point, and that's back in John Chapter 7.
John 7 and verse 37 And the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
And now we get the commentary. But the Lord Jesus still said what it was here.
Spirit of God explains in verse 39 this He speaks.
Of the spirit which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost is not yet given.
Because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
So admittedly, the Lord only said this.
You know that there was going to be rivers of living water flowing out of his belly. But he goes on to explain it further.
And let's just turn on to John 14.
Because here's where the Lord really opens that up.
And he opened it up to the disciples and the upper room ministry here He says verse 16, I will pray the Father. OK, so let me stop there for a second. This is all just after the Lord had introduced to them what he was about to do, right? The first verses of the chapter. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I'd go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And so he spoke very definitely about going away and when he was going to go away, then what was going to happen. And that's what he gets to hear, the provision that he was going to make for them. So let's go back and start again at verse 16. He says, I will pray the Father.
So when he goes away, this is what he would do. I will pray the Father and He will.
Shall give you another comforter, that He may abide with you forever. Even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth them not, neither knoweth Him, but ye know Him, for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you. The two parts of the Spirit of God with us today, collectively and individually. And so the Lord Jesus spoke about that very definitely, that He was going to pray in the Spirit of God. The Spirit of truth is going to be sent down.
And that's a new thing. They did not have that before, He says he's going to indwell.
As said in John Chapter 7 that they would receive the spirit always in the past it had been the Spirit of God coming on one for a time, even unbelievers. But here it was a different thing entirely. It was indwelling. Chapter 16 speaks about it more and we're just only going to touch on on this part.
But chapter 16 verse 13, the Lord Jesus says, howbeit when he the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all.
Truth. For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he shall.
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And he will show you things to come. And if we had?
Just read in chapter 14, verse 26, the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, that your Father will send in my name. He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. And so that's what the Holy Spirit did. The Lord laid out many things, but what we're interested here this afternoon is what the Lord said.
About lease and kernel form. About the church itself.
And the kernel truth of what that would be. And the Spirit of God then took that and brought it to their remembrance as well as giving the fullness of revelation through the apostle Paul. And that's how it could be verified that which Subarians could not go back and see in the Old Testament. That's how we know it in the New Testament. And what that means to us, of course, is don't try to get it from the Old Testament. Don't try to get church truth from the Old Testament.
Another very important point that we need to understand. Can we get Christian instruction there? Can we learn about God there? Absolutely.
Can we get many details of prophecy there? Absolutely. Are we going to learn what the Church is there?
If anyone tells you that you can or turns you to the book of Isaiah or any other portion.
To give you something as to what the Church is in its order and its operation, its destiny, its place before God.
Then you know that they're wrong. It isn't there. It was revealed first by the Lord Jesus Christ, then through the apostles and prophets, and brought out in all of its fullness to the writings of the apostle Paul.
I just want to look at one more thing. This one is not said by the Lord from earth, but.
He gave one more very important thing directly from heaven, and that's found in Acts Chapter 9.
Acts 9 and verse one says Saul.
Yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord went to the high priest and desired him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, if that, if he found any of this way, that is Christians.
And that he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
And that's eternity became near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven.
And he fell to the earth, and he heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
That's a tremendous revelation right there.
Verse five he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecute us.
That's what the Lord said to Paul at the moment of his conversion. He gave him this tremendous truth of the mystery. What is the church? It's a body of Christ. When Paul lashed out and touched one of those Christians, he was touching the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And that's what the Lord told Paul. You have nothing of that in the church in Israel.
There's nothing of that in the Old Testament, that connection between.
Jehovah and a child of God, Abraham, or any of the others, Not one hint of it. This was a whole new thing. It had to wait until the Lord Jesus died, and then he rose again, and he ascended up into heaven. And there having been in heaven, he received that promise of the Spirit and poured out the spirit of God, baptizing those believers into one body that was his own body on earth.
Himself, the risen head in heaven.
New Organism formed that was entirely different and unique. And just as he himself was in heaven, so that body was a people who was composed of people that were heavenly people. Their destiny was heavenly, their origin was heavenly, everything about them was heavenly. You read in the book of Ephesians, you find that they're already, and we ourselves were already seated with Christ in heavenly places.
That is a very, very different thing.
Than anything else that we have of the people of God in the Bible. It's a unique position that we are found in in the body of Christ. And Paul learned that at the moment of his conversion, maybe not all those details or how it worked. He had to go on, have the rest revealed to him, no doubt, but he learned that when he was touching a believer, he was touching the Lord Jesus Christ himself.
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And he was a chosen vessel from one who spoke from heaven.
To a man who was connected to that man in heaven. Now the apostle Paul and he spoke of a whole different order of things that were from heaven. And so it wasn't given to the other apostles. It was given to him to reveal all the details of that heavenly truth of Christ and his body and his bride. Well, our time is gone. We could look at more of.
Of those unique things, one of the ones that we had before us and Dorothy recently at the.
In our assembly meeting from Ephesians chapter five was just the very institution of marriage that was being spoken of last night and what a high thing it is. Brother Steven spoke in the meeting the other day about Al Canaan and having two wives, right? And how what is spoiling that is, But you think about that, what did I know about?
The church? Nothing he couldn't.
But it's very different for us, isn't it? We now know that in our marriage relationships we are fulfilling this type of Christ and the church in our respective roles and that elevates it almost infinitely, if not infinitely so much higher than what Solomon with 1000 women was responsible for. Now we have this physician to represent Christ in this very God and Christ exalting way in our marriages and we.
And that we don't get caught up with the idea of marriage being just a covenant like you do have it presented in the Old Testament or the thought of this divorce accepted. I mean, it was in the Old Testament.
What thought could there be of any of that? We have an entirely different order of things, and we could go on with example after example. But if you don't understand this difference of Christ between the church and Israel and what that is and how we are united with Christ in heaven and the practical meaning of all that.
Than all the rest of the truth is going to slip this. Well, that's why brethren teach it and it's why it's a burden. That's why we want to keep coming back to it and make sure that we all understand these things and we're grounded in them so that we can walk in a way that suits Our Calling. It's the way it's put in Ephesians 4 verse one walk worthy of the vocation to which we've been called. Well, let's just close in prayer.