kick back into our study here. I made mention of this already
a while ago. I kind of got ahead of myself. I sometimes do that. But I did make mention and I'd
like you to at least read it because a lot of people have
not even read this passage of scripture. But in Revelation
chapter 20, There's actually a couple of
places in Revelation where this phrasing
is used, but this one particular, verse 14, it says, and death
and hell were cast in the lake of fire. This is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast in the lake of fire. So there were names that were
written in a book of life. And to be written in that book
is definitely a privilege. But as I was meaning a while
ago, uh, you know, this is, uh, uh, something that was done outside
of us. It was, the names were written
down and it was the book of life of the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. Uh, It was his book of his account. And I believe it was the account
of everyone for whom he died. You know, it was the list of
everyone that were given to him. Now, whether or not there's an
actual list, I don't know. That's, you know, you can wrestle
that around in your mind, whether that's a literal or just a, you
know, something's given us understanding that God knows those who are
his. He knows them by name. He made them. He created them.
He elected them. He gives them to Christ. Does
he need a name to do? I don't think so. But I'd also
think that I wouldn't put it past the Lord to have those actual
books that's talked about right here as actual records for men
to see that, look, it was sealed a long time ago. It was written down. Nothing
has changed me. Nothing has changed my decree.
Matter of fact, we're, and this may be, this may be a discussion
that some may disagree with me on, but there was only one who
could actually open the seal and unroll that and bring it
all about. And we find in Revelation that
worthy was the lamb who was slain. He has taken the scroll from
the hand of God and has opened its seals. and has brought out
everything written on the front and on the back, by the way.
And so everything that God has purposed and decreed, Christ
has been the only one worthy to bring it by providence to
be. And so what an amazing thing
to see that even whether it's talking not literal or literal,
God knows those who are his and they are chosen out before the
foundation of the world, whether it's actually written in a book
or not. But here it says that there's a book and then it was
some names written. And those whose names weren't
in that book, they were the ones who was cast in the lake of fire.
And by the way, because it was written before the foundation
of the world, it's not God sitting here waiting to write these names
down. And they like, oh, he's in a
revival service. Maybe he's gonna choose me. Oh,
he didn't choose me. Well, I can't write his name
down. And then at the end of his days, they just say, well,
he never did choose me. So I couldn't never write his
name down or, in view of what I started with
earlier. He's wrote his name down. Oh, he made a profession
of faith. I've wrote his name down. Oh, now he's fallen away. So I got to erase his name out
of the book of life. Yeah, kind of like an etch-a-sketch.
Just let's erase that back out. Get some white out to cover his
name up. God may not have erasers, but he's got white out. He can
blot your name out with white out. Now, that's not true, okay? So, brethren, that's a privilege
to be written in the Lamb's Book of Life. All right, now we were
just hinting at this. I just brought this up. In 2
Peter chapter one, we find that Uh, and we were kind of, me and
Larry were discussing at the break a couple of, uh, issues
about the word glory and Christ glory and, uh, our glory, what
the Bible speaks to those things. Um, and this was one of the verses
that comes to my mind as we were talking about that, but the wording
was a little bit different. Um, but in, uh, second Peter
chapter one and Verse two, it says, grace and
peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God
and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given
unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. There
again, here's some, these are some things that I even left
out. You know, these are privileges as well that we could easily
say that. who's given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness. Now, okay, let's just stop there. That's a promise. That according
as his divine power hath given unto us all things, we're lacking
in nothing. Colossians says that we are complete
in him, right? We are lacking in nothing. He
has given unto us all things that pertain unto life, and godliness. If you're a child of grace, that's
the promise that God has made and the fact that God has given
concerning you. You've been given all things
by his divine power, not by your own working. See, it couldn't
ever have been done in your own flesh. It couldn't have ever
been done. Why? Because the flesh profits how much? Nothing. That's right. It profits nothing.
The flesh cannot do anything to please God. And so it has
to be a spiritual work. It has to be from a spiritual
source. It has to be of a spiritual nature,
of a spiritual kind. Why? Because God is spirit and
those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. So these things are all spiritual
in nature. And here again, we see the divine
power, something that is spiritual, not earthly and natural. given unto us all things that
pertain to life and godliness Ephesians chapter 1 he has blessed
us with all what kind of blessings spiritual blessings in heavenly
places okay that pertain into life and godliness through the
knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and and virtue. Oh, it's called us to glory and
virtue. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers
of the divine nature. Wow. Now you can kind of see
where some of the heretics, you know, can get skewed a little
bit of the divine nature. So we now see that the spiritual
nature is not an earthly nature. It's not of the earth earthy.
It's not natural. It's not carnal. It's spiritual,
right? We see that the divine nature
that we are partakers of is something that doesn't come from Adam.
It can't be worked up by Adam. It can't be invented by Adam.
It can't be improved on by Adam, by the way, for those progressive
sanctifiers that's out there. The flesh can't be improved on
by Adam. The divine nature has been given
to us. So, to the question of those
who believe that we only have one nature as opposed to two,
I'm still struggling with the one nature. Argument, I believe
that there are still two natures that the nature of Adam and the
nature of Christ that we experience in this Tent this flesh and so
But anyhow, what's the precious promise or the privilege to the
child of grace here that we are partakers of the divine nature
and Now, again, I go back to what
I said before the break, that is flabbergasting to me. I can't believe it, that we can
be partakers of the divine nature. It doesn't mean we're God, but
we are partakers of the divine nature. What a privilege. Now, Acts chapter five, we're
gonna conduct I'm going to kind of make a turn here in tone. Acts chapter five. I was actually reading through
some of Acts this week while I was at work. I had some downtime
at one of the places where I was working waiting in between technicians
to come back to be trained and so I was reading some scripture
and I was reading through Acts and Making some notes and different
things and in Acts chapter 5 we find that The Apostles Were preaching about
Christ and they had already been called out once For preaching
Christ and warned, you know, hey don't speak in this man's
name And, you know, they kind of give them a stern verbal warning
and told them to go on their way. And they did it again. And
then we find that they're before the religious leaders again.
And if you'll look with me in Acts chapter five, you'll see
verse 28, we'll see the first part. It says saying, did not
we straightly command you that you should not teach in his name
and behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend
to bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the other
apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than
men. And I say, amen. I think preachers ought to obey
God rather than men. Quit listening to what men tell
you to preach and not preach and preach what God tells you
to preach. We ought to obey God rather than
men. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged
on a tree. Him have God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance
to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses
of these things. And so is also the Holy Ghost
whom God hath given to them that obey him. When they heard that
they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them, then
stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a
doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people and commanded
to put the apostles forth a little space, and said unto them, ye
men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching
these men. For before these days rose up
Thudias, boasting himself to be somebody, to whom a number
of men, about four hundred, joined themselves, who was slain, and
all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered and brought to naught.
After this man rose up, Judas of Galilee, in the days of the
taxing, and drew away much people after him. He also perished,
and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed. And now
I say unto you, refrain from these men, and let them alone,
for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to naught.
But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it, lest happily ye
be found even to fight against God. And to him they agreed,
and when they had called the apostles and beaten them, okay,
Just in case my advice don't work, we're gonna beat you anyway.
And beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in
the name of Jesus and let them go. And here it is, verse 41. And they departed from the presence
of the council rejoicing. Rejoicing. Let me reiterate,
rejoicing. that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in
every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ."
Okay? So you say, well, what's the
privilege here? Well, brethren, there's also
a privilege that believers have of suffering for his name. There's
other accounts we could definitely go to, but this was fresh in
my mind after reading through it this week. We can be suffer
or we can suffer in his name. Matter of fact, many of us have,
you know, we've lost friends, we've lost loved ones that have
broken fellowship and everything with us because of what we believe. They won't have it. They're not
going to serve that God. You know, they don't want to
hear that doctrine. That's not the doctrine. You
know, matter of fact, many say that that's doctrine of the devil,
you know. And so we suffer for preaching
these things. And here these men, they stood
up, they weren't afraid to lose anybody's applause, okay. These preachers, stood up, they
told the truth, and they could care less, you know, whether
or not it made them popular or not. They could care less whether
or not they gained a crowd or not. They could care less really
how it affected anybody if you, you know, they cared, but, you
know, they weren't concerned with the outcome because they
knew that the outcome was all of the Lord's anyway. And so
they were just being faithful to speak the truth. And that's what all preachers,
all pastors, all those who are ministering in the word are called
to do, to be faithful to the word of God. Quit changing it
to your lifestyles. Quit changing it to your, people
that are coming, okay? Quit changing your message and
quit harboring on the things for just what you think they
want to hear. You know, quit letting people's
ears get tickled by the things that you know that they want
to hear and preach the truth and stand in the truth whether
or not it causes people to shy away or not, you know. We don't
need to be offensive in the way that we do it, but the gospel
and the Word of God is offensive to those who don't believe it.
And so we must stand in that truth. And I encourage any preacher
that's listening, any pastor that's listening, anybody who
is the minister of the word of God in any capacity, that you
need to stand on the truth. And when you do, there's gonna
be... Persecution there's gonna be
suffering that's gonna come but at that point you can be like
the Apostles here and rejoice to be counted worthy to suffer
shame for his name Not that we're running out, you
know, I don't want rocks thrown at me, you know but brethren,
I tell you what I'd rather be a found to have stood in the
truth against all opposition and popularity than to save myself
from a stoning from a group of people and to have denied Christ. And I don't want to be boastful
like Peter and say, well, I will never deny you because I don't
know until that time comes. But I just pray this Lord will
make me faithful, and that's my desire at least. I want to
be faithful to the Lord and never cow down whenever someone presses
about the truth. And of course, I don't know too
many people that say that about me. I'm pretty hard on standing
on what I believe and not backing down on that. But sometimes,
you know, when you love somebody, it's hard to stand. I mean, I
can stand to somebody I don't know that disagrees, that comes
out and disagrees with me. I can stand firm all day long.
But it's usually whenever someone that you love or know, acquainted
with, that's where it gets hard. You know, that's when you kind
of want to start softening things up just a little bit, you know,
and you don't want to make such a hard stance or even consider,
you know, capitulating a little bit. But brethren, we need to,
we need to count it. as rejoicing, suffering for the
name of Christ. That's a privilege, by the way,
that those who are suffering for the name of Christ consider
it something to be worthy of. You know, those who are not of
Christ, they're going to run from that. Matter of fact, we're
going to see in the days to come when things begin to wax worse
and worse than it is now, whenever the persecution will come, and
I believe it will come upon the Lord's people, and upon his churches
that we're going to see the wheat and the chaff is going to be
Separated we're going to see those who are truly the churches
of Christ We're going to see those who are truly the children
of God. We're going to see those who are truly believers Separated
from those who aren't because those who aren't They're not
going to stand in the heat. The heat will melt them and all
their draws that's you know, whenever they stand all that
wood hay and stubble that they've built up is going to be gone
and reveal for who they are and And so we are privileged to be
able to even have the ability to, in the face of suffering
and persecution, rejoice. That's not a natural thing for
us. However, we also have this promise
to us, back to the Epistle of Peter, 1 Peter. Again, chapter one. Look at verse
six, it says, wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season,
if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations,
that the trial of your faith being much more precious than
of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might
be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of
Christ Jesus, whom having not seen ye love in whom, though
now ye see him not, yet believing ye rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, even the
salvation of your souls. And so we see here that we're
promised that there will be an overcoming of trials, that we
will overcome. And man, there's so many verses
that come to mind on that, of the Lord's preserving us through
trials. But here he says that, Even though we go through manifold
temptations, the Lord says that we're gonna be found and tried
with fire, but we're gonna be found in front of Him in honor
and glory at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. All these
things that's happening is all for our good and that we will
overcome Him. He will keep us. He that began
a good work and He will finish that. The Bible says that He
will keep you. He will cause you to walk in
His statue. And all these promises that we have of preservation,
and so we know that these trials, we will overcome these trials
that we go through. We may not be faithful necessarily
through all of them, but He will cause us to overcome them. Matter
of fact, Revelation speaks of the overcomers, right? Well,
we've been made conquerors. We've been made more than conquerors,
right? Is that what the scriptures say?
So the trials that we go through, we'll overcome. That's another
great privilege. And lastly, that kind of leads
me to Romans chapter eight. This was some of our discussion
last week, Romans chapter eight. As I was mentioning just now,
being made more than conquerors, I'll go ahead and back up and
read those verses that actually say that. But it says, verse
35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation
or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril
or sword, as it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the
day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him,
that loved us. For 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,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so here again,
brethren, this is just a showing that we will overcome. We will
be victorious. You know, I heard a lot in growing
up about victorious Christian living. Larry probably knows
what I'm talking about and a lot of A lot of this stuff comes
out of Campus Crusade for Christ, the Four Spiritual Laws. A lot
of this comes from a lot of Lordship Salvationist teaching. One of
the teachers I used to listen to, Major Ian Thomas, used to
talk about a lot of this stuff in victorious Christian living.
And however, it's all centered on how we are faithful and how
we are doing all this stuff. Now, Are we actually involved
in? Yes, we are. We are the recipients
of the work of God in us. Yes, we are the ones doing that
work. God is working in us. He is causing us to walk in his
statutes, to keep these things, to do these things. He is working
out in us. It's our, we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works. The workmanship is
the one doing the work. And so yes, we are the ones involved. And yes, as far as I and Thomas'
teaching was correct, it is Christ in you who does these works.
It's not us ourselves and all this stuff. But brethren, listen,
it isn't something that we control or can, bring up to a greater
level, or keep at a lower level. All that in and of itself also
is by God. And so the victorious living
isn't us just deciding that I'm gonna make Christ Lord, not just
Savior, but Lord. It isn't me just deciding that
I'm gonna give up and let God, let go and let God. It isn't
me giving in to anything and trusting Him It's Him working
that out in me. Even the trusting, even the giving
up, even the, you know, putting away of the flesh, all these
things, is all Him too. We have to trust He's doing that,
because if I try to do that in the flesh, it's the works of
the flesh, and the works of the flesh ain't gonna do nothing.
So again, all this work, the victorious Christian life, is
this right here. The victorious Christian life
is the fact that we will be preserved until the end. Not that we're
going to live up here on this mountaintop of righteousness
all the time, or this mountaintop of health all the time, or this
mountaintop of success all the time, or this mountaintop of
obedience all the time, or this mountaintop of joy all the time. That's not victorious Christian
living. victorious christian living is
making it through the fight through the temptation through this world
and being preserved until the end that's the victorious christian
life and all that is as we said right here as we see right here
it's through him that loved us that we are made more than conquerors.
It's through him that we are made victorious. See, we don't
become victorious because we're good soldiers fighting and slaying
our enemies, rebuking the devil. casting our spells of faith upon
the demons and putting God to work for us with our faith by
backing Him into a corner and making Him do as we choose because
we have this faith, like the word of faith people wanna teach
us. No, brethren, we're victorious because of Christ. It's the love
of God that, has caused us to triumph. His love for us, his
love in us, and his son that he sent and died for us. That's
why we are victorious. Anybody got any comments? Any
brothers got any comments? I came up with this last week. It's just full of lies. Yeah. So, and you can actually
sing the songs that way as they sing through them. Yeah. Yeah.
Definitely so. Definitely so. Well, brethren, it can easily
be that. And even these things that we've talked about, the
privilege of the leaves, that's why I made that disclaimer last
week and again this week. You know, you can easily go around
and boast of these things as if you owned them or deserved
them or worked them out. But while they are privileges,
while they are given and given to only the elect of God, and
you being a recipient of that, if you be the elect of God, that
still is no grounds for us to boast. I mean, Paul, you know,
made it very clear, you know, that his boasting wasn't in himself
but in the Lord. And that's where all of our boasting
is. If we're going to boast about being joiners with Jesus, it
ought to be because of Jesus. You know, let everybody know.
That very passage that you quoted from in the fifth chapter of
Isaiah, when he's talking about Gamaliel there, if you go back
further than Acts, the 22nd chapter, that Gamaliel, which was a doctor
of the law, had a reputation among all the people. That was
the very person that Paul was brought up under. In the 22nd
chapter of Acts, verse 3, I am a very man in which I am a Jew
born into our city of Sicily, yet brought up in this city at
the feet of humanity, and taught according to the perfect manner
of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God as Yeah, it's amazing to see there
were some that heard Christ and all that he did, and the apostles
and their testimony of everything that he did, and well, even Jesus
himself, you know, whenever he taught, there were some that
believed, but some that did not believe. And again, that of itself,
no boast in any man, it's the Lord, you know. They believed
because they were his sheep. They didn't believe because they
weren't His sheep. All right. Let's bow and we'll have a word
of prayer and we'll go ahead and eat. Gracious Heavenly Father,
we thank You again for Your grace and mercy. We thank You for another
day that we've had to study Your Word and to proclaim and exalt
Christ Jesus. And Father, we thank You for
these privileges, these blessings that's been given to us And Father,
again, as we list these things off of all the things that you've
promised to your people, given to your people, blessed us with,
Father, we truly know that we are undeserving of these because
of our sin and our attachment to Adam, that we don't deserve
any of these things. But it's only by grace alone
that we've been made partakers of these things because you give
us to Christ and made us joint heirs with Him, that you, Lord,
have made us a peculiar people, that you have made us a person
who is eternally, vitally united with Christ in such a way that
we too will be one, even as you and the Father are one. And so
we thank you for that. And Father, we just pray today
that as we leave this place, as we study your word throughout
the week, as we talk with other people, Father, may our hearts
be ever brought constantly to the central figure of who all
this is about and it be Christ Jesus. May we not preach our
church or preach our denominations or preach our thoughts about this or that or
opinions, but may we always preach Christ. May we exalt him in all
things. Father, we thank you again for
this time together, for the input that was given today. Father,
we thank you for that. We thank you for each person
that's here, for the food that we're about to eat, and the ladies
that's prepared it. And Lord, we're just so grateful that we
are able to gather together, and we ask, Lord, that you might
give us many days ahead to do that. Again, we lift up those
ones that was asked for prayer earlier, Lord, and we just ask
that your will be done in all of that. We ask for grace to
be given to them in all of these issues, and Father, Lord, that
you just might minister. and glorify yourself in these
things. And it's for your son and in
his name that we pray. Amen.