Let me ask you this morning to
turn to Leviticus chapter 16. Leviticus chapter 16. And while you're marking that
place, you can also mark Hebrews chapter 2. Now we're dealing
with the Day of Atonement. We're looking at types of the
Lord Jesus Christ through the Old Testament. And we're dealing
with the Day of Atonement We're taking our time as we go through
this. Last time we saw how the high
priest is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest. And today we're focusing on the
offerings. But we're going to consider one
verse and focus on two words. And these words are of and for. Of and for. Leviticus 16, verse
5. Now this is the instruction from
the Lord God through Moses to Aaron the high priest on what
he is to do in bringing the offerings. And what offerings he is to bring.
It says in verse 5, And he, the high priest, shall take of... There's the word. He shall take
of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats. for, here's the second word,
for a sin offering. And one ram, this one is also
taken of the congregation of the children of Israel, we see
here, for a burnt offering. Now, both of these goats were
for a sin offering. One of the goats was killed,
his blood made atonement for the sins of the people of Israel,
the children of Israel. The other goat had the sin of
the children of Israel laid upon it, and he bore their sin away
into the wilderness, into the land of separation. Both were
but one offering. Both were an illustration of
the one offering of Christ Jesus the Lord. whereby He perfected
forever His people. Sin demanded death. And He died
the sin, He died the death of everyone that He represented.
He died for them. And He bore the sin of His people
away so that it'll never be brought up again, never be remembered
again. It'd be unjust for God to charge
His people with sin when Christ bore the judgment. Now we know
this simply from just our courts of law. If a man has been proven
innocent in a court of law, you can't bring that man back in
and charge him with that same crime again. You just can't. It's double jeopardy. He's been proven innocent. And
so it is, when Christ was judged of the Father, and He bore away
the sin of His people, He made reconciliation of God through
His own blood, life's in the blood, that He satisfied God
for His people. Now it's unjust. For everybody
that Christ represented, He satisfied God. So it would be unjust for
God to punish them again. They can't be punished. And they
won't be. They can't and they won't. Now
the burnt offering was just what it sounds like. The offering
was brought and it was burnt completely. And that smoke ascended
up. And this was typical of Christ
Jesus who, when He bore the fire of God's wrath, it came up to
God, He offered Himself through the Eternal Spirit, and it came
up to God a sweet-smelling sacrifice, a sacrifice accepted of God. God's pleased. Now, between what
Christ did and where His people are in their death and trespasses
and ignorance and depravity, between that, God has to do something
for them to bring them to see it's all been done. God did it
all in Christ. And He does that through the
Spirit, through the Gospel. That's why we're here today.
That's why I was sent here for you with a message from God is
to give this call to everybody here. And God's going to apply
it to everyone that He's loved from the beginning. He's going
to apply it. Now, our focus today is going to be the two goats
and the one ram. that were taken of or from among
the congregation of the children of Israel. They were offered
for the children of Israel to make atonement for their sin.
The offering was taken of that congregation only. Now you listen
to me. There were Gentile nations all
around the nation of Israel. Do you think they had goats amongst
them? They had plenty of goats that
could have been taken, but it wasn't taken from them. It was
taken, these two goats were taken of the children of Israel from
amongst their midst. Well, and it was offered only
for the children of Israel. There was folks living all over
the world in that day and time. But this offering was made for
the children of Israel. Now here's what I want you to
get from this study this morning. This is as far as we're going
in it. This is what I want you to get. The sin offering being
taken of the children of Israel and offered only for the children
of Israel declares the oneness, the oneness between God and His
children of promise in Christ Jesus. That's what I want you
to see. Because it was taken of the children of Israel, for
the children of Israel, we see the oneness of God for His children
of promise, with His children of promise in Christ. That's
what I want you to see now. Alright. This congregation here
is called the congregation of the children of Israel. And this,
everything the Lord's doing here is, you know when you're teaching
your children at home, when they were young or even some now perhaps,
you'll draw, sometimes you just draw a picture and say, let me
show you this. I can illustrate this for you
with a picture. A picture's worth a thousand words. I can show
you this in a picture better than I can explain it to you. Well, everything that God did
under the old Mosaic covenant, Literally, through a man that
he made a high priest, and using some goats, and using this ram,
and using these things, was God drawing a picture for his little
children, and showing us this is what Christ Jesus the Lord
has done. That's what Hebrews 10 says,
the law was a shadow, a picture, a type of good things to come.
They've come now. And now Christ is the end of
the lawful righteousness. It's all been accomplished in
him. All right, now, this was typical, as I said all that to
tell you this, this congregation of Israel is typical of who Christ
did this work for. The congregation of the children
of Israel. God's household is a family. This is not foreign throughout
the word of God at all. God is the Father. The Son of
God is God's Son. All the children of promise are
God's children. He's our Father. The Son is our
elder brother. In the flesh, He's our everlasting
Father for what He does through us being the last Adam. He's
the everlasting Father. And we're brothers and sisters
one of another. Us who believe and trust the
Lord have been called by His grace. So the Lord Jesus, when
He came in the flesh, He is the firstborn son. You know, the
elder, the eldest son gets the preeminence. He's the firstborn
son. He gets the preeminence. And
the glory goes to Him. The glory goes to Him. And when
Abraham was called, way back in the day, they're called the
children of Israel. Now let me bear this out for
you. Abraham was called first. He's
called the father of all who believe. That's what the scriptures
call him. Abraham, God called him when he was down in the land
of idolatry. He was a Gentile. At that time,
Jew and Gentile didn't exist. That line of distinction hadn't
been drawn by God. He was a Gentile. He was called
by God. And God promised Abraham a seed. He said to him, in thy seed,
that word means son, in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed. That's what he said. In Galatians
3.16, Paul, speaking through the Spirit of God, God tells
us what he meant when he told Abraham that and what Abraham
understood him to mean. Paul said now to Abraham, and
to his seed were the promises of God made. And he said, not
to seeds as of many. This promise was made to Abraham
and his seed. He said, not to seeds as of many,
but Christ. That seed is Christ. That's who
he was talking about. Because from Abraham If you just
take out all the children that came after Abraham, and you have
Christ, that's what God was saying. Abraham, through your lineage,
the Messiah is going to be born. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming
to this earth. He's the Son, and in Him, I have
children of promise from all the nations in the world. And
I'm going to call them out and I'm going to make them to see
that they've been fully blessed, justified, satisfaction has been
made for them in Christ Jesus, The son of God, the son of Abraham,
the son of David, the son of Solomon, the son who came through
that tribe of Judah. He said, I'm going to do this.
And all those children he promised Abraham. He said, you look up
at the stars Abraham, can you count them? He said, I can't.
He said, that's the number of children you're going to have.
You're not going to be able to number them. And he was talking about
children of promise. Children of promise. And you
remember Abraham, we're told in Scripture, had two children.
He had Isaac and he had Ishmael. But Ishmael was the product of
his own making. He got tired of waiting on God
to give him Isaac. And so he went with his handmaid
and he had a son with her because Sarah didn't think she could
have one. And God said, this is not the promised son. He said,
Isaac is. And he sent Ishmael away. Remember,
from Isaac came Jacob. He's who Israel is here, the
children of Israel. From Isaac came Jacob. Jacob
had a twin brother conceived in the womb at the same time
named Esau. And God said before they were ever born, He said,
Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. And even among the Gentiles,
these children of promise that God promised Abraham would be
born. Even these children of promise
from among the Gentiles, they wouldn't be considered Jews by
the Jews, the children that were born from Abraham. They too,
those elect chosen children from among the Gentiles, are children
of promise. They're the children of promise.
I want you to see this. Romans 9 chapter 8. Stay with me now on this. He
was of the children for the children. Now I want you to see something
here in Romans chapter 9. I'll try to bring all this together
for you here in just a moment. I want you to see this. Romans chapter 9. Look down at verse 8. Well, let me read 7 and 8 together.
Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all
children. Abraham had a bunch of children.
This I try to show you. Ishmael and Isaac, they were
both children. But because they are the seed
of Abraham, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is,
now here's the meaning, they which are the children of the
flesh. These are not the children of God. But the children of the
promise are counted for the seed. Counted for the children. The
children of the promise. Salvation is by promise. Salvation
is by grace. Look down at verse 18 in that
same chapter. Therefore, this is what we conclude
from everything Paul has said up to that point. Therefore hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. You see, if God's going to save
one of these children of promise, the first thing He's going to
make them to see is they're responsible. This was Greg's outline last
night. Responsibility. They're responsible. He's going to make you see you're
absolutely responsible to believe on Him. This is the work of grace. He's going to work. Responsible.
It would be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than it will
be for you that have heard this gospel today. and not believed
on it. inability, responsibility, you're
responsible. Second thing is inability. He
gonna make you see you're unable to do what he said you are responsible
to do. That you know that exists in
our day and time. This is was the illustration Rick Greg gave
last night. There's a bunch of folks living right now in this
sad economy we live in that are responsible to pay the debts
they owe. Do they have the ability? Does
that just take them away from their responsibility? Responsibility
doesn't mean you have the ability. God makes you to see that. And
in the text he preached from Matthew, was it Matthew 11? In the text he preached from,
then he said, then at the same time, you know what Christ said?
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. You know
when you're going to be Burdened and heavy laden when he makes
you see you responsible and when he makes you sick makes you see
you have no ability and Then he bid you now come I'll do all
the work. I take all the burden Then you
come then you'll come but see Men will say, well, why does
he find fault? Who's resisted his will? It's up to him to have
mercy. That's what the natural man would
say. Paul said here in Romans 9.20, Nay, but, O man, who art
thou that replies against God? Who are you? Shall the thing
formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Are you going to question God? Well, I have a right, a right
to hell, a right to eternal separation. That's the right you got because
you sinned in Adam and you was conceived in sin and you came
forth from your mother's womb speaking lies and you forfeited
all your rights. You got none. So God can do with
you whatever he wants to. And when he speaks in your heart
and makes you to know that, he's already had mercy on you. And
He makes you to see your responsibility and your inability, and then
He says, now come, trust Me, and you will. You'll throw all
the burden on Him and fall into His arms and say, Lord, I trust
in You. Now, this is what He said in
Galatians 3 verse 7. If you want to turn there with
me, Galatians 3 verse 7. Knowing then that the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. That this is by God's
choosing. Know ye therefore. Galatians
3.7. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same
are the children of Abraham. You mean everybody that's been
called and born of the Spirit of God and given faith are the
children of Abraham? Look down at verse 28. There's
neither Jew nor Greek. The only way racism is going
to cease to exist is when you're called into Christ by God. Then it won't matter to you whether
it's Jew or Greek. Neither bond nor free, there's
neither male nor female, for you're all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be Christ, then are
you Abraham's seed and heirs according to, what's that last
word? The promise. It's all about promise. Now, turn to Hebrews 2. Hebrews
2. Now, what is it? I've got to
make sense of all of this for you while I'm telling you all
this stuff. What do we learn in our text? God took the one
who would make satisfaction for the sins of the children of Israel,
of the children of promise, and He took him from among the children
of promise. Why is that important to know?
Let's see it. Hebrews 2 verse 11. Hebrews 2
verse 11. Let's begin in verse 10. For it became Him, became His
honor, His glory, His holiness, His very character, For whom
are all things, and by whom are all things, and bringing many
sons unto glory, it became him to do this in this way, to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings, to
consecrate him as the way through the death of the cross. Now watch
this next line. For both he that sanctifieth, that's Christ, and they who are
sanctified are all of one. For which cause? Because they're
all of one. For this cause. He's not ashamed
to call them brethren. You see, the reason men won't
preach this Gospel and lay hold of this Christ that I'm speaking
to you is they are ashamed of Him. Ashamed of this Gospel.
But what you need to find out is God's got to make it so that
he's not ashamed of you. That's the problem. Well, because
He came and He's one and these children of promise are all of
one, all of one promise, all of one Father, all of one Lord,
all of one work of grace wrought by Christ, all of one calling
of the Spirit, all of one faith, all of one baptism. Because He's
done all the work and it's all of one that sanctified Him, He's
not ashamed to call them His brethren. Now look, saying, I
will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the
church while I sing praise unto thee. That's what the Lord was
showing with those lambs that was taken of the children for
the children, Christ the lamb, Christ's sin offering, declaring
the name of God in the midst of the church, in the midst of
his household, in the midst of his congregation, the children
of promise. And again, I will declare thy name unto my brethren
in the midst of the church, while I sing praise unto thee. And
again, I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and
the children which God hath given me, forasmuch then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood. He also likewise took part of
the same. That's what we're seeing in that
sin offering and that burn offering being taken of the children because
the children of promise were flesh and blood. Christ came
and took part of the same. He took part of the same. It
wasn't possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take
away sin. God was never satisfied with
that. It was a picture. It was a shadow to show us what
Christ would do. But the Lord said, but a body
He prepared me. And I came in that body through
the lineage of Abraham just like He ordered it, ordered and sure
from the beginning. I like order. I like things to
be sure because I need that. And I need God to order me. And
I need it to be sure because it's not in me. I don't have
any stability or any order in me. I'm learning to have to follow
Him a little bit, but I need it. I need some order from Him.
This is the one thing that's ordered and sure. It has been.
He told the end from the beginning. He told Abraham way back there,
this is how it's going to be. And He came in that body because
what the law couldn't do in that it was weak through the flesh.
We couldn't satisfy God because we were sinners already. He gave
the law to show the impossibility of us pleasing Him. And if we
latch on to anything we've done, and don't just think it's looking
at the Ten Commandments. If I told you to come to Christ
without telling you, God has to do a work of grace in your
heart and draw you by His grace to Him, you'll make a work and
a law out of coming to Christ. You'll trust that. But that law was weak through
the flesh, but God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin. He was of the children of promise
for the children of promise. Sending His Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh. He did it. And that the righteousness
of the law, that the law may look to those that He died for
and say, fulfilled. fulfilled. That the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh. That means we're not looking
to ourselves, to anything that we've done, to anything before
or after conversion, but we're walking after the Spirit. We're
under the rule of the Spirit of God, led of Him, serving Him
and worshiping Him in spirit and in truth and no more in the
letter. We're not trying to find life.
It's something in this book that'll tell us what we can do. We see
what's been done and we follow Him. Now, go on reading there.
Are you still there in Hebrews chapter 2? He took part of the
same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power
of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
You need to be looking in your Bible at these words with me.
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily, when
God says verily, he means listen to this right here now. He took
not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him, what? The seed of Abraham. the children
of promise. He was of the promised children
for the promised children. Wherefore, in all things, it
behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Now look over at Hebrews 3 verse
6 right there. Now, what's Christ? What's this
glory of Christ? What does God say about Him?
Christ is a Son over His own house. Isn't that what we're
talking about? This household? How we're brought
into unity? God and his people are brought
into unity in this household. A father and the children are
brought by the elder brother as a son over his own house to
whom this whole work was entrusted to him by God, who trusted in
him first before anybody else did, his father, to bring this
work to pass. And all of this unity is because
in all points he was made like us and he died for us. Now look over and it says here,
whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope firm unto the end? Have you grabbed hold of this
confidence? Is Christ your confidence? Have
you started rejoicing in this hope that it's done? If we hold fast this confidence
and this rejoicing unto the end, If you've begun, hold fast. Now,
where is that confidence? I want you to see this too, Ephesians
1. I know you're very familiar with
this, but every time I read it, I see something, I delight in
even more. And with this text and what we're
looking at here, I'm telling you that because He was in all
points made one with us. He that sanctified, they that
are sanctified are all of one. He's made us one. Now where's
this confidence and where's this rejoicing? It's all in this one. Now look with me. I want to read
about 11 verses to you. Ephesians 1 and look at verse
2. Grace, he's speaking, let's begin
in verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, to the
faithful in Christ Jesus, he's writing to people who have already
experienced this grace of God and have latched on to this confidence
and are rejoicing in this hope and holding fast to it. And he
says now, let me tell you how you got this way. And this is
my gospel to you, what I'm constantly preaching to you. Let me show
you what our confidence and our hope is. Grace be to you and
peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Look at this
next word, in Christ. according as He hath chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him in love. He is the Beloved and it's love
for God to put us in the Beloved. Verse 5, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. We talk about children. How are
these children of promise brought into this union with God, this
offended God? He predestinated us into the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ. It's in Him. To Himself,
according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of
the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted. Where
at? In the Beloved. In this one. Verse 7. In whom? It's all in Him in whom
we have redemption through His blood. Because He came of us
and He died for those God gave Him. Redemption through His blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, wherein
He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, and
having made known unto us the mystery of His will, according
to His good pleasure, which He hath purposed, this wisdom, this
abounding, this mystery of His will, He purposed where? In Himself. In Himself. Now look, verse 10,
that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather
together in one all things, where? In Christ. Both which are in
heaven and which are on earth, even, He says it again, in Him. Well, we're not through yet.
Verse 11. In whom? It's still in Christ. In whom also we've obtained an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will,
that we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted. Where did God the Father first
trust? Who did He first trust? In Christ. In Christ. In whom ye also trusted
after that you heard the word of truth. After you heard this
word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Where is this
word of truth? Where is this gospel of salvation?
In whom? In whom also after that you believed
you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. Sealed where?
In Christ. And this spirit of promise, this
is where we get the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope.
It's the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased
possession and to the praise of His glory. You know, if you
choose somebody and you trust them, and they fulfill the work
that you've trusted them with, and you delight in what they've
done and accomplished, and somebody comes along and they don't trust
in them, in the one you trusted in, but they try to add to the
work, say, no, it's not finished. You're not very happy with them, are you? I was thinking, that
doctor that Sister Lynn's got an eye problem, she's going to
see a doctor today. When he does this work that he
does on her eye, and he makes her to where she can see, Lord
willing, to where she can see again, and the work is finished,
and the work is done, that doctor is not going to be very happy
if Brother Hyman calls him up and says, I don't think it's
finished. I got something else I'm going to do. No. And Lynn's not going to be very
happy either because she trusted in that physician. Well, God's
people and God the Father have trusted in one, Christ the Lord. And they're neither one going
to bear with anybody that don't trust Him. They're not going
to be turned away from trusting Him themselves. Now, in time,
in Adam, in our flesh, in our sin. All these children of promise
were separated from God. But this is the vital issue.
This is the vital good news. This is the heart of our Gospel.
It's this. God put His children of promise
in Christ before the world began. We didn't choose Him. He chose
us. And because the children were of flesh, Christ took part
of the same. And He fulfilled the law His
children couldn't fulfill. He went to the cross and He answered
to the penalty of it. I don't like it when I hear men
say that Christ didn't, the righteousness of Christ is not in that he obeyed
the precepts of the law. Psalm 22, I don't say you can
read Psalm 22 and behold him justifying God with his lips
and saying, God you're just to forsake me and not see faithfulness
and holiness that the very law demands. The active precept of
the law that it demands. and he declared God just. He
said, you blessed all the children, all the fathers, you blessed
them all, but I'm a worm and no man. He justified the father
and yet he continued to pray to him even though the father
would not answer him and even though there was none to help
among the children of men, he was all by himself and he never
ever once turned away from trusting the Father even until his last
breath when he said, Father, into thy hands commend I my spirit. And he gave up the ghost, trusting
God to raise him from the dead. Let me tell you something. That's
what the law demands of you and me. That's the holiness and faithfulness
it demands of you and me. And as he was answering the penalty
of that law and dying to put away our sins, he was actively
fulfilling faithfully in all holiness the precepts of that
law at the same time. At the very same time. So don't
talk to me that he didn't obey the precept and the penalty.
He did both. He's the Lord our righteous.
And that's our hope. And when the Spirit of Christ
enters, the Holy Spirit, and He reveals this, He makes us
to behold this. By what He did, I'm at one with
God. That's what I need. That's what
you need. That's what you need. The burden
will be gone if you find out you're at one with God. Then
you'll serve God. Then you'll be merciful to brethren,
merciful to sinners, because now you know how able God is. That's right. This is not the
minor point of our gospel, that Christ elect the people, that
he died for a particular people, that he was of that people and
for that people. This is not a minor issue. This
is the issue. It's the issue. No matter the
measure of grace that's given to the believer, every believer
hears this one voice. And he follows one voice, and
a stranger he won't follow because he teaches us this gospel in
his heart. And because we've been born again,
every born again child of promise knows we're fully accepted in
the beloved. No matter what grave clothes we may have, of any other
thing. We know this. He died and he's
the successful Savior and I'm fully accepted of God in him.
There's nothing else for me to do. Nothing else for me to do.
and that only through Christ will each of these children of
promise be born unto Him and be brought into this oneness
with God, and they all shall. And we know that. And because
we've experienced it, even though we come in contact with sinners
who are unregenerate, maybe they're religious, whatever it is, when
you don't hear Christ in the voice, you don't hear Christ
in what they're setting forth, when it's not in accordance with
His Word, because you know it and have been taught it, You
still deal mercifully with them, and you still set forth the truth
of this gospel in meekness and lowliness of heart, showing them
the truth of the Scriptures. Well, I don't believe that. Fire
all the darts you want to. Chop away all you want to. I've
got the helmet of salvation. I've got the shield of faith.
I've got the armor of righteousness. I can wield off all the darts.
I will bear everything you want to hurl at me. But I'm going
to keep on dealing with you in mercy and telling you this truth
because I've experienced this and I know God's able. And when
it comes to brethren who all still have grave clothes on us
from our old dead flesh, and we justify ourselves for the
silliest, most ignorant things, for not following faithfully
after God, for turning away from Him, for letting anything and
everything come between us and God, And yet, because we know
these grave clothes ourselves, and we know what it is to be
in this body of death, and we know that our God is able, even
so, with our brothers and sisters in Christ, we keep on using this
one word of Christ the Lord. And somebody, if there's any
of you that have faithfully come here, and you say, well, you
know, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. Hurl the
darts, that's okay, I'm just gonna keep on telling you this.
And I trust he'll make it clear. That's all I can do. I think
back on my immaturity. When the Lord first called me
by His grace, I think of how I would just go times without
being in the services. I would use all kinds of silly
things to justify my rebellion. I just wasn't committed. I believed
the Lord. I trusted Him. I delighted in
His Word. I was reading His Word. But I just had all kinds of problems
and plagued with all kinds of problems. And I think back on
that, and I'm so thankful that my pastor dealt with me the way
he did. He just kept on faithfully preaching
this one message, this one message. When I was with him, together,
alone, traveling someplace or talking on the phone, he kept
reminding me of this one message, this one message. And over time,
God grew me in the measure of grace in his time, and he's still
growing me. Still growing me. And it still
happened the same way. This very same way. That's everything
practical that's taught in the Epistles, brethren. It's this. It's don't be turned away from
this message. Don't be distracted. It don't be a distraction. You
know, I got to make this one point, and then I'm going to
close. But the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they were kinsmen
according to the flesh with Paul. They had the same scriptures
as Paul did. They used the same name of the
Lord coming off their lips and their tongue just as Paul did.
But they would not receive Paul promote Paul, join with Paul,
have anything to do with Paul, because only the Spirit of God
and the Word of Truth can create this mystic, sweet communion
between His people. Politics can't do it. Friendships
can't do it. Business alliances can't do it. Nothing can do it but the Spirit
of God. But wherever this voice is heard,
everybody who heard Paul preach, whom God worked in their heart,
when they were in the midst of folks who were saying, nope,
nope, nope, nope, nope, they took off following Paul and said,
yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And God does that. I know He
does that. So if there's a problem between
folks in this world, I don't know all the brethren in this
world, But those that I know, and those that you know, if you
have spiritual ears, you can hear, and you know the voice,
you hear the voice of the Lord speaking. And if you don't, you
know there's a problem. The difference is, you'll receive
them to sit and hear this gospel priest. So God can do a work
for them, but they're not going to... they're not going to receive
you. They're going to part from you just like the Pharisees and
Sadducees did. Just like men have done from...
just like Cain did from Abel. That's just how it is in this
world. That's grace 101. That's just
how it is. Because they're going to major
on the minor. And the truth is, they're ashamed
of the Gospel of Christ Jesus. The man who won't set it forth
clearly, he's ashamed of it. Shamed of it. You can decode
it all you want to. That's the end of it. Shamed of it. I get
calls sometimes from strangers. I've got, I've been corresponding
with somebody in Australia. I've never seen them. They've
never seen me. Never seen me. But the comments
and the correspondence back and forth and the delight of our
hearts and the unity of our hearts is this gospel I'm declaring
to you right now. It's Christ who was of the children
and died for the children to whom we're looking and coming
and trusting. That's the unity. That's the
unity. I didn't do anything to create it. They didn't do anything
to create it. God did everything and created
it. And it's there. It's just there. We being many
are one body in Christ and every one member of another. Paul said,
therefore, because I'm the prisoner of the Lord, he said, I beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation we're with you called,
with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering for bearing
one another in love. That's what I'm talking about.
Because you know he's able. You've experienced it. That gives
you boldness to say the truth. And it gives you boldness to
be merciful and long-suffering and meek. This is what it is.
Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of
peace because there's one body, there's one Spirit, even as you're
called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all who is above all and through all
and in you all. Everyone that believes. And you
know what all this is because of? Those two little words. Of and for. Of and for. And all the glory is because
he was taken of the children of promise. And he died and reconciled
the children of promise to God. He shed his blood for them. Of and for. Amen.