Turn with me, if you would now,
to Matthew chapter 12. Matthew chapter 12. I want to
look back at one more portion of scripture from Matthew 12.
And it's going to be verses 46 to 50. Matthew 12, verse 46, it says, while he yet talked to the people,
behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to speak
with him. Then one said unto him, behold,
thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with
thee. But he answered and said unto
him that told him, who is my mother and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples and said, behold, my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of my father, which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister
and mother." What he was saying was, my people are my family. My people, my chosen, my adopted,
my purchased people are my family. They are my family. And those
who truly love Christ and have been called to see him as their
all, they say, that's right. That's exactly right. He and
his people, that's my family. The blood that binds us together
has made us to be family. Blood family, truly blood family. A couple of weeks ago, as you
know, Hannah and I did some traveling to other congregations, and like
us, those other congregations were small groups of believers.
And I was sitting in one of the services thinking to myself,
as I was sitting there, I was thinking, I wish we could just
all worship together. I don't have to be the pastor. I just wish that we could all,
we all have one heart and one desire and one, and I just wish
we could all come together and just have one big congregation. And this thought went through
my mind. There are only two reasons for
separated congregations. There's only two reasons. Number
one is geography. And number two is disagreement. There's only two reasons. Within
a city, the reason that there are all of these different churches,
and I'll put that in quotes, all of these different churches
and congregations, the reason there are so many is disagreement. They may not want to admit that,
but that's so. We don't like what you're saying,
so we'll go start our own church. But within the collective church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because those who are truly called to
Christ don't have an opinion on the word of God. They don't
make up their own thoughts on the word of God. They deny all
their own thoughts and they only stick to what he has written.
And by God's grace, they don't add to what he has written and
they don't take away from what he has written and they don't
hold to part of what he has written and deny the other part of what
he has written because it's his word alone. All of his word alone,
only his word alone because of that, they're all in agreement. They are all in agreement. And within the collective church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only reason there are multiple
congregations is geography. That's the only reason. One day
real soon, that geography problem is gonna be taken care of. We're
all gonna be in one location. There will only be one congregation. It's amazing to think about one
congregation, one assembly of brethren, brothers and sisters
in the Lord, brothers and sisters in the blood. It will be as the
scripture calls it, the church. And there will be one pastor. And we will all collectively
spend our time doing the will of the Father. And you say, what
is that? What is the will of the Father?
Well, look at any law in the word of God, and we will actually
be able to fulfill it for the first time. In a sinlessness like Christ,
in a holiness like Christ, we will, everything we do will be
in agreement and according to the will of the Father. But first
and foremost, what is the will of the Father? What will we spend
our time doing? Hearing Him. Isn't that what
the Father said? This is my beloved Son, hear
Him. That's what we're gonna spend
our time doing. Hearing Him. Hearing Christ. Believing Christ. Worshiping
Christ. Sitting at His feet, looking
to Him. Just look to Him, that's what
we're gonna do. About 15 years ago, we had the
opportunity of going to Mexico and spending some time with the
Groover family who were our missionaries. But, and I told you this before,
but it's been a while and somebody hadn't heard it, so I'll tell
it again. But while we were there, staying with Cody and Winna,
I was, killing time waiting on one of the services to start.
And I was sitting in their living room and I saw Brother Cody's
Spanish Bible sitting on his coffee table. And out of curiosity,
I just wanted to know if I could understand anything out of it.
And so I thought, what's a scripture that I can quote right now? And
I thought Psalm 23, Psalm 23 verse one. So I found the Psalms and I found,
somehow, Psalm 23. And in that Spanish Bible, this
is what it said. Jehovah es mi pastor. The Lord is my pastor. In Spanish,
pastor, shepherd, translates pastor. The Lord is my shepherd. That's what it said. The Lord
is my pastor. And when I read that, it just
hit me. The Lord is our pastor and he
is going to be our pastor. There is one king that's never
gonna be dethroned. There is one high priest that's
never gonna be replaced. There is one pastor that's never
gonna step down. One God, one Lord, he's our pastor. Not one word of his is ever gonna
fail. I love thinking about the fact
that he is gonna take his word, this will never fail. and we're
gonna sit down and he's gonna stand up and open to Genesis
1.1 and we may spend billions of years with him just telling
us about in the beginning. I'm looking forward to it. I'm
looking so forward to it. The Lord is our pastor and there's
gonna be one congregation One of these days, real soon, we're
gonna get to gather with the saints in that great congregation
of glory. And our Lord is gonna open these
words to us like we've never heard them. He's gonna reveal
things like we've never seen them. And we're gonna hear Him, we're
gonna believe Him, we're gonna bow to Him, it's gonna be glorious.
From the depths of our soul in that moment, truly, we're gonna
say, If we think we say it now, we are truly going to say, then
I was glad when they said unto me, let's go to the house of
the Lord. So glad David said, Oh, how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. That word unity could just be
changed to Christ. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in Christ. So good. Now, from this text that we just
read, this is what we can see, and this is what we can rejoice
in. Our Lord was not ashamed to call us brethren. He was not ashamed to call us
brethren. Verse 49 says, he stretched forth
his hand toward his disciples and said, behold, my mother and
my brethren. These are my brethren. This is
my family. Now, just to be clear about this
so that we can have the comfort of knowing this, I enjoyed knowing
this. I think everybody else will too.
His earthly mother, again, in quotes, and his earthly brethren,
they were included among the brethren. It's not that he was shunning
them and, denying them. He was illustrating a point.
He was illustrating a point to us. When the angel came to Mary
to announce the birth of the Lord, this is what the angel
said. He said, you are highly favored with God. That means
graciously accepted. You're graciously accepted by
God. Mary, as we read about her, was a believer. who pondered
these things in her heart." Doesn't it say that over and over again?
Mary pondered these things in her heart. Mary believed what
was told her concerning the Christ. Just before the Lord gave up
the ghost on the cross, while he was hanging there on the cross,
in his love for her and in his care for her, he told John, The
disciple whom he loved, that's how John referred to himself.
In his humility, he wouldn't say his own name. But he told
John, take her home and you care for her the rest of her days
on this earth. You treat her like she's your own mother. And then after the Lord had ascended
in the book of Acts, when all the disciples were gathered together
in an upper room, just before Pentecost, It says that she was
gathered with them in prayer. So that was Mary. And then as
far as his earthly brethren were concerned, many of the Lord's
earthly brethren, which included cousins, they called them all
brethren. It could have been Mary's children,
Mary's sister's children, the family tree, it called them brethren. Many of his earthly cousins and
siblings ended up being his apostles and disciples. James, we'll just
turn over to Matthew 13, verse 55. Matthew 13, verse 55, it says,
is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary?
And his brethren, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas, aren't those
his earthly brothers? James is referred to as the Lord's
brother, the writer of the book of James. Jude, Judas is also called Jude,
who has a book named after him. He's referred to as the brother
of James. James is the brother of the Lord
and Jude is the brother of James. So what does that make Jude?
The brother of the Lord. He's also called Labaius and
he's also called Thaddeus. That's the Lord's brother Judas
or Jude. There's Judas Iscariot and there's James and John, James
the greater and James the less. There are two Jameses, but the
writer of the book of James was the Lord's brother. This brother
Josie, that's Joseph, that's what it means. He's also referred
to in the scripture as Barsabbas. You'll read the name Barsabbas.
And Simon is not Peter, Simon Peter, but Simon
Zelotes, you'll see his name too. So he did include some of
the members of his earthly family tree into his spiritual family. He was merciful. And he included
them in. But here's the thing. He didn't
show them favoritism. He did not show them favoritism.
All of his brethren were the same. They were all the same. And in this, he showed us that
his spiritual family is greater than every other relationship
that can be had on this earth. Back in Matthew 12, verse 48, it says, he answered and said
unto him that told him, who is my mother and who are my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said,
Behold, my mother and my brethren. Thank God he was not ashamed
to call us brethren. Some he called brethren. Thank God he included us. Turn over to Hebrews 2 with me. Hebrews 2 verse 1 says, therefore
we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have
heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word
spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if
we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him? God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to his own will for unto the angels
hath he not put in subjection the world to come whereof we
speak. but one in a certain place testified
saying, what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son
of man that thou visitest him? What he said so far is if the
angels couldn't keep their state with him and their sin against
him brought judgment on them and they were cast out of heaven
like a bolt of lightning, how much more should we fear this
God? and look to Christ and bow to
him. And he said, the amazing thing
is in verse five, unto the angels did he not put the world in subjection
to come. They're not going to reign with
him. But one in a certain place, verse
six says, testify, what is man that thou art mindful of him
or the son of man that you would visit him? Verse seven, thou
madest him a little lower than the angels Thou crownest him
with glory and honor and did set him over the works of thy
hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection
under his feet, for in that he put all in subjection under him,
he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not
yet all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned
with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death.
Who did he do that for? Who did he condescend down and
endure the suffering of death for? His brethren. His brethren. Every man and woman. who He chose to call brethren. He did not leave one of them
out. Not one of them out. Not one
of His chosen brethren fell through the cracks and was lost. Not one. Every man, every woman
that the Father elected to this brotherhood, Christ died for
them, He paid their sin debt for them, He wiped their slate
clean and he redeemed them back to God. Every man. Verse nine says, but we see Jesus
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace
of God should taste death for every man. People see that and
they say, well, there it is. Every man, Christ died for everybody. No, he did not. His blood was
not wasted. His blood was not in vain. He
did not just pour it out there for men and women to accept it
or reject it. He said, I pray not for the world,
but for them that thou hast given me. Every soul that the Father
has given me, every man, every woman that the Father has selected
to be our brethren. Every single one of them. Verse
10 goes on to say, For it became him for whom are all things,
and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory,
many, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering. For both he that sanctifieth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren. Romans 8.29 says, For whom he
did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Verse 12 right here says, Saying,
I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of
the church will 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. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, He also himself likewise took
part in 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. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
He did not take on himself the nature of those fallen angels,
but he did take on himself the nature of his people, his brethren. Verse 17 says, "...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. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted." He's able to comfort them. One
more verse. Chapter 3, verse 1 says, wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus. Considering what he has done
for us, considering what he endured to make us to be his brethren,
let's spend the rest of our days on this earth Endeavoring to
do that. Endeavoring to do what he has
called us to do. And it's this right here. Look
with me if you would at first Peter chapter three. May God give us the heart to
endeavor. work labor to do this right here. First Peter three verse eight
says, finally be ye all of one mind, having compassion, one
of another love as brethren. Love as brethren. Our Lord said,
by this shall all men know that you're my disciples if you have
love one to another. God's people love that. They
love that. Think about the brethren who
are in this room right now. Just do this for me. I wrote this down because I had
this in my heart and just do this for me. Think about the
brethren who are in this room right now who show a good confession
of Christ dwelling in them. Those who believe on Christ and
have a heart for Christ. Those here right now who love
Christ, bow to Christ, you just think about them. Think about
the brethren who are right now either in the pew in front of
you or the pew behind you. Get them in your mind and love
them. Get them in your mind. and love
them. Love them as brethren, as Christ
loved us. We can't imagine how much love
is gonna be in glory. Oh, the love. Oh, the love. It's gonna be love. I mean, it's
just gonna be love. True love. Love as brethren. Christ loved us. Why did He go through all this?
He was in need of nothing. He didn't have to do this. Why did He enter into a covenant
to do this for us? Why did He do this? Love. Christ loved us. Christ suffered
for us. Christ was patient with us. Christ was so kind with us. He
was so tender with us. He was so merciful toward us.
Let's be that for each other. Let's do that for each other. Let's love as brothers and sisters
do. Brethren, brethren, love as brethren. He went on right here to say,
be pitiful, be full of pity for each other. Be courteous, be
courteous to each other. Verse nine says, not rendering
evil for evil or railing for railing, but contrary wise blessing,
knowing that you are there unto called, that you should inherit
a blessing." Love is brethren. Look with me at 1 John 3. A few
more pages over to 1 John 3. We know what John 3, 16 says,
for God so loved, God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten
Son. Whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. Well, this is 1 John 3, 16. 1 John 3, 16, it says, Hereby
perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life
for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for the brethren. May God give us a heart to do
that. May God give me a heart to do that. Lay down my life
for the brethren. Lay down my pride, lay down whatever
I think I'm worthy of and whatever I think, let's lay it down for
my brethren. Lay down our lives. for the brethren. Peter said, we were just there
in first Peter three, he said, let's have the same mind about
this. Let's all be in agreement about
this. It'll make for such peace. That's
glory. Glory is so full of love. It's
so full of peace. Everybody's in the same mind.
It'll make for such happiness. It'll make for such contentment.
You'll be so content. Nobody in glory wants to leave.
Everybody's so content, happy. The Apostle Paul said the same
thing. Right here, I'm talking about this congregation right
here. We have this. We do, we have this. The Lord
has given us a moment where we love each other. I know we do.
I know we do. It's written all over our embraces. We're just a hugging bunch of
people. And we love each other. Let's endeavor to keep it, whatever
it takes. Let's lay down our own lives.
Just fall at each other's feet. Not unto me, unto you. Isn't
that what our Lord did for us? Not unto me, unto you. And we
cry not unto us, unto you. But only because he cried not
unto me, unto you. Let's endeavor to keep it. That's what Paul
said in Ephesians 4. I'm done, but go with me to Ephesians
4. Ephesians 4 verse 1 says, I therefore,
the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the
vocation wherewith you are called, with all lowliness and meekness,
with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring
to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is
one body. And one spirit, even as you are
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 then you all, everything in Christ is oneness. Everything
in Christ is oneness. Everything in Christ is unity. In John 17, the Lord said, Father,
I want them to be in us and one with us as we are. It's all oneness. One day in glory, we're going
to know and experience that. We're going to know it. We're
going to experience that. Let's endeavor to experience
a little taste of it right now. Just a little taste of it. Christ
in each other, that's the tie that binds us together. That
is the tie that binds us together. He's our fellowship, he's our
brotherhood, and how privileged we are to be called to it. We're
just so privileged. Let's remember that. I'm going
to close. I was going to read it for Ephesians
3. You read the end of Ephesians
3 for yourself, but it's a good place to stop. Let's just pray
that the Lord will keep us right there in that love, that unity.
All right, Brother Eddie, you come.