Alright, let's start reading
here in verse 15 of Ephesians chapter 5. See that you walk circumspectly,
not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are
evil. Wherefore, be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will
of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to yourselves
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody
in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things
unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives,
submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For
the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head
of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore,
as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to
their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh, but he nourishes it and cherishes it, even as the
Lord the Church. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you, in particular, so love his wife, even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Our gracious Father in heaven,
in the blessed, blessed, glorious name, saving name, That name
that's above every name, that name that we love, that we love
to sing about, love to praise, love to preach about, love to
think about, our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that and bless you
that you've allowed us to meet. Oh God, we're so thankful to
be able to meet. Lord, we've missed so many and
yet now you've allowed us this time to meet together. And I
pray that you'd be pleased to cause the gospel to run well
here tonight. And I pray for those among us
who are weak in body, weak in spirit. Pray for those who have
gone through trials, waiting on those who are having issues
in health and all the things, dear Lord, that would trouble
them and bother them. cause them to worry and fret
and doubt. God strengthen, God encourage, God uphold your people.
Lord, we bring your people to you. Lord, you're the one that
must do for them as you must do for me and everyone. And Lord,
we trust you. And again, we pray for those
that we love that's lost, sons and daughters, children, grandchildren,
great-grandchildren, husbands and wives. Oh, God, we bring
them to you. trusting Him with you, knowing
you as being the judge of all the earth, you'll always, always
do what's right. Bring glory to yourself tonight
in this service for Christ's sake and in His name. Amen. Now here in Ephesians 5, I want
you to look at verse 27. that he might present it to himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, nor any such
thing, that it should be holy and without blemish. He's talking
about the church. He said in verse 25, husbands
love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. You know, there's people and And that's been a long time since
I met anybody, yet there's people that's looking for an ideal church,
what they call an ideal church. And if they're looking for an
ideal church made up of people like us, they'll never find it.
They'll never find it. Because a church is made up of
men and women, boys and girls, that's born sinners and have
sinned, And if they're looking for a place to pitch camp and
they don't want to be around a bunch of folks that ain't perfect,
and there's one fellow I advertise this all the time on the radio,
no perfect people allowed. I'm going to tell him one of
these days and you don't want none of the Lord's people there
because every single one of them is perfect. And when I get a chance, I will
tell him. I'll meet him one of these days and I'll tell him.
I said, well, listen, you don't want none of the Lord's people
there because every single one of them is perfect. Ain't that
right? That's right. But I tell you,
and the Lord one of these days is going to present a church
to himself. But this church will be in its glorified state. This
is the church that I want to be in. This is the church I want
to be identified with. This is the church that Christ
is the head of. And I'm very thankful that he
is. And our Lord is going to present himself a perfectly glorious
church. But until that time, until that
time, beloved, we're going to have to take one another as we
are. We're going to have to live with one another as we are. Ain't
that right? And I don't have any problem
with that. Or if we don't want to live with one another as we
are, we can set it home and wonder why everybody in the church is
not like us. Oh, my. But people who talk about
an ideal church, they mean that they want to measure a church
by their standards. That's what a church should be.
And I've heard things like this. We need to get back to the New
Testament way of doing things. Well, that's right. We do. We
do. But remember, some of the things
that happened in the New Testament church, they had lots of problems. You take the church at Corinth,
they had a moral scandal. A man took his father's wife. Then they had women who was trying
to preach and teach and take over and be out of order in the
churches. And then they had a real uproar
over the Lord's supper. People were getting drunk at
the Lord's Supper and keeping poor people from coming in because
the wealthy would come in, have a big feast, and they'd all drink
a bunch of wine, and the poor folks couldn't get in and take
the Lord's table. So they had some awful, awful things. They
had schisms and cliques. One said, I'm of Paul, I'm of
Apollos, and I'm of Cephas. So they had problems. You certainly
don't want to be that much, Could you imagine somebody naming their
church Corinth, Corinth Baptist Church? And then in Galatia,
take the Galatian church. So overcome with doctrinal error
that Paul said, I stand in doubt of you. I marvel that you're
so soon removed from the grace of Christ into another gospel,
which is not another. Who hath bewitched you? that
you should turn away from him who has evidently set forth crucified
among you. Oh, my. And then you take the
seven churches in Asia, seven churches in Revelations. Look
at what our Lord said about all of them. He said Satan's got
a seat among you, budge. He told one of them. And so all
these were true churches of our Lord Jesus Christ, but they had
problems and errors in them. So the search for an ideal church
will be fruitless because churches, local assemblies are made up
of fallible, sinful men and women. But there is a true church and
our Lord Jesus Christ has a true church and he calls it his church
and he gave himself for the church. He purchased the church of God
with his own blood. And this true church, and I tell
you what, let me give you some things about it. First of all,
there's no such thing as an ideal church because of what we are
in ourselves. But I tell you, I know this much
about this church that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to present
to himself. Glorious without spot, without blemish, without
blame, without spot or without wrinkle. It's all believers of
all ages. Every believer who's ever been
saved by the grace of God has been in a true church. And all
of us, right now, all of us believers here of all ages, ain't that
what he says, that Lord loved the church and gave himself for
us? God's elect, all for whom Christ died, are in this church. And if they're not in it now,
they will be in it one of these days. They'll be identified with
it. And I tell you something about
true churches, all true churches, A church that Christ is going
to present to himself, they're every one of them visible. They're
made up of bodies of believers. Now, they're visible churches.
You know, some people teach that the church is invisible, and
you don't know who they are. Well, listen, an invisible church
never did do anything. Only visible members of a local
body is the one that can do something. This church is visible. It's
visible to the community. It's visible to other churches.
It's a church that can be seen. It's a church that can be reckoned
with. It's a church that's got an identity.
It's a church that's got a character. And they're visible, made up
of bodies of believers. And what's the mark? What's the
mark of a true church? This church that the Lord's going
to present to himself, a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any of those things. that he should behold him without
blemish before him. What's the mark of it? Well,
let me tell you a couple of things it's not. A couple of things
it's not. It's not their stand on baptism.
No. It's rare, rare, rare to find
somebody that's not really, really strong on baptism. And it's not
the stand that they take on the Lord's Supper. There's people
take the Lord's Supper every Lord's Day. And it's not a historical
succession from John the Baptist till you go all the way down
and identify yourself with John the Baptist. And that church
that can find your historical succession from John the Baptist.
And so then that's the only way you could be called a church.
And I'll tell you something else, a church should not be judged
by its attendance. Our Lord himself says, wherever
two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the
midst. He said, it only takes two or
three. You got two or three people get together and get to talking,
get to visiting, and get to talking about Christ and what He is and
what He means to them, what He's done for them. Next thing you
know, the Lord Jesus Christ right in the middle of them. And He
blesses their hearts. And oh, it should never be judged
by the number of its activities and what it does. But let me
tell you how to choose church, how you can tell one. Is what
does it say? and preach, and where does this
stand on the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the first thing of church
that the Lord Jesus Christ has. That's the first thing. What
is it that they believe and preach and teach about the Lord Jesus
Christ? Our Lord Jesus said in Matthew
16, 18, he said, upon this rock, I'm going to do what? I'm going
to build my church. Well, he wasn't talking about
old Simon Peter. That's what the Catholic Church
believed. They believed they built it on Simon Peter. But
our Lord Jesus Christ, he said, upon this rock, God laid a sure
foundation, a precious cornerstone. And I'll tell you what, he's
the cornerstone. He's the foundation of the church.
And it's upon that rock. And he said, the gates of hell
won't even prevail against it. And believe me, the gates of
hell try sometimes. And look in Matthew 22 with me.
Matthew 22, let's look at this and see what it says over here.
Peter confessed that he was the Christ. Who does men say that
I the son of man am? Well, thou art the Christ, the
son of the living God. He said, oh, you're blessed,
Simon Barjona. The flesh and blood didn't make
you know that, but my Father which is in heaven made you know
that. Peter confessed that he was the
Christ. And look what he said here in Matthew 22 and verse
42. Well, verse 41, Matthew 22, 41. While the Pharisees were gathered
together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think you of Christ? That's
a good question. What think you of Christ? What
do you really think of Christ? Who is he? Why did he come into
this world? What did he do while he was in
this world? Who did he do it for? Where is he now? What kind of person was he? What
kind of character did he have? What was his nature? What was
his works? What was his word? What was his
will? What was his purpose? What was
his calling? What was his anointing? He asked the Pharisees, what
do you think about Christ? Whose son is he? We say the Son
of God, and they say unto him the Son of David, and they said
right. He was made after the cord to the flesh, the seed of
David. God said he'd give him David's throne, and David's throne
would last forever and ever and ever. His dominion would be no
end. And they said, well, they said
the Son of David. He's a rightful king. He said
unto him, how then does David, in spirit, when he's calling
on the Lord, he says, and he's calling on the Lord, he said,
the Lord said unto my Lord, the Father said unto the Son, the
Lord said unto my Lord, set thou on my right hand till I make
thee enemies of your footstool. If David then called him Lord,
tell me, how is he his son? And, oh, listen, I know the answer
to that question. I know how to preach that. I
can preach from that. I can tell you who he is, why
he's the son of David, and why I asked after the flesh. That
makes him the rightful king. That makes him's lineage go all
the way back to David and Abraham. He's Abraham's seed, David's
seed, the son of David, and the son of God. And oh, listen, that's why Nate
and nobody didn't ask him a question after that. And I tell you, you
know, believing He, we believe that He is the Christ, that He
is the eternal Son of God. And with this true church, we
who preach the gospel, we believe He's all our salvation. There's
nothing for us to do. It's all been done. And to get
somebody by the grace, the only way that anybody will stop trying
to be saved by doing is for God to save them. When God saves a man by his grace
through the preaching of the gospel, that's when he'll stop
doing. Because he'll trust Christ who
did it all, all to him I owe. We believe he's the son of God
and he's incapable. of any kind of a failure? To
think for one moment that he would fail in his object to come
into this world? To think that he would fail to
honor his father? Fail to fulfill the word? Fail
to do the work he came to do? Fail to save the people he come
to save? Fail to put away their sin? Fail
to go to the right hand of God instead of his right hand? Oh,
he's not able to fail. And I tell you, we believe and
know this, that everyone he died for, every single one of them,
must be saved. Must be. Must be. And the true church, this one
that Christ gonna present to himself, a glorious church, they
emphasize, they emphasize Christ and Him crucified. That's what
they, there's no reason, other reason for them to exist. What
other reason does God have for His church on this earth if it's
not to preach His Son, to preach Christ and Him crucified? Does
He want us just to gather around here, twiddle our thumbs, everybody
take time singing, everybody give a testimony, everybody have
a song, everybody have a psalm, everybody get up and have something
to say? Did he send us here just to win souls? No, he sent us
here just like he did his son, to honor his blessed son. And if we don't do that, we have
no reason to exist. There's lots of churches that
a person can go to, but to find one that makes their message,
the Lord Jesus Christ emphasizes Christ and Him crucified, the
only sacrifice for sin, the only substitute for sin, the only
sin offering for sin, the only satisfaction to God. Now, if
you ever find a place like that, as old Henry used to say about
LR Shelton, drive a stake down, we're fixed to jump a creek.
Stay right there, boys, stay right there. When we find somebody
preaching the gospel, nail it down. Don't move, don't move. And I tell you what, you see,
we preach that he's the power of God. Everything that God did,
created the world, upholds the world, and saves his people,
Christ is the power by which God does it all. And He's the
wisdom of God. And you know what that means?
That we can see through Christ and Him crucified, by His sinless
life and His sacrificial, sin-offering death, we can see how God can
be just and justifier in Christ. That's why He's the wisdom of
God. And He's made the wisdom of God unto us. We see how God,
in His wisdom, could take sinners kill them, punish them for every
sin they ever committed, and at the same time justify them,
clear them of all guilt, save them by grace, give them a new
nature, give them a new mind, and save them all at the same
time. That takes some wisdom. Oh, he's the perpetuation for
our sins. He's the mercy seat of which
we go where the blood's been applied. He's the head of the
body of the church. He said here he's the head of
the body, the savior of the body. That means, beloved, that he's
not only the head of the body, but he saves the body. And if this gospel, if preaching
Christ is present, everything will be right. But if this is
absent, no matter how orthodox a person may be, everything will
be wrong. You can get all your ducks in
a row, cross all your T's and dot all your I's, but if you
miss Jesus Christ to be your all in all, to be your only Savior,
to be everything to you, Your only righteousness, your only
justification, your only acceptance, the only one that loves you,
the one who gave himself for you to save you from your sin,
if you don't see him that way. And let me tell you something
else. Let me give you some things. And the true church, this church
that we're talking about here in Ephesians 5, this church,
this church here in Ephesians 5 that he says that he'll present
to himself, a glorious church. This church will show forth its
fruit, and I'm going to give you 10 things, if I can, by God's
grace, I'm going to give you 10 things about this church,
10 things that show forth the fruit of Christ and knowing Christ. And if you're in this church,
that'll show forth itself in 10 ways. And I won't take me
long to say this. First one is, you know, you're
in this church. If you're in this church that
Christ has purchased with his own blood, you'll love one another. We will love one another. What fulfills the law of Christ?
To love one another. We know we've passed from death
unto life. Why? Because we love the brethren.
The law of love is the law of Christ's kingdom. It's the evidence
of God's grace. It's the joy of God's saints
in this world. Look in Galatians, right back
to your left, just a little, Galatians chapter 5. Look what
it says here about love. That we will love one another. Is it a perfect love? No. But it's real. It's real. You know, I have brothers after
the flesh. I have sisters after the flesh. And I'm much, much, much, much
closer to all my brothers and all my sisters here than I am
after anybody after the flesh. I'd rather go and spend a week
somewhere with any one of you is to go spend two days with
my own family. And I'm not because there's anything
wrong with them. It's just that we don't have
the same nature. That's the thing, we don't have the same nature. You know, you can only do so
much when a fellow's got a different nature. I've got a sheep's nature
and they've got a hog's nature. Ain't that right? And if you
have a family, if you have a family that you enjoy, a big family,
and you enjoy them, you can get along with them and enjoy one
another, that's absolutely wonderful. Big families, I know big families,
and they get together and have a wonderful time and things like
that, and they can enjoy one another. But you don't do it
for weeks and weeks and weeks. I don't think, you know, I've
never known anybody do it. But anyway, look here in Galatians
5. Look with me here in verse 13 and 14. For brethren, you have been called
unto liberty. Only use not your liberty, your
freedom for an occasion to the flesh. Don't lose what liberty
God gave you to serve your flesh. But here's what you do. But by
love, serve one another. By love, serve one another. Don't
serve your flesh, serve somebody else. Don't wait on yourself,
wait on somebody else. When the flesh wants something,
serve one somebody else. For all the laws fulfilled in
one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Tell you something else, the second thing is that we'll keep
the unity of the Spirit and we'll keep the bond of the peace. Back
in Ephesians, ain't that what it says here in Ephesians 4?
We will keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Oh, listen to what he says here. In verse three, endeavoring to
keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. Now here's
how you do it. And this makes it very easy.
There's one body, one spirit, even as you called in one hope,
if you call it one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and
father of all who's above all through all in y'all. Now that's
we all. Now, it's easy to keep a unity
of spirit like that, ain't it? It's easy to keep peace like
that when we have that. And then God gives every one
of us, gives us grace according to the measure of the gift of
Christ. And oh, we'll keep the unity of the spirit and the bond
of peace. Unity of heart and faith and doctrine and purpose
are essential to the peace of this family. Now, you keep this,
you keep Ephesians, and look in 1 Corinthians 1. In verse
10, 1 Corinthians 1.10, here's a verse of scripture that Paul
was talking to the Corinthians. Oh, we'll love one another and
we'll endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of
peace. You know, I think believers, and I may be wrong about this,
but I think believers, even when they have an ill feeling towards
somebody, I think it troubles them. I think it bothers them. You know, if they feel like somebody
has got something against them or there's an ill feeling or
something, an ill will somewhere, it troubles them so much because
they don't even want to feel ill about a brother or sister.
They certainly don't want to think ill of them. Certainly
don't want to treat them ill. But they don't even like to think
wrong about them. I think I'm right about that.
I really do. That's been my experience. That's
been my experience. But look what he said here in
1 Corinthians 1.10. Now I beseech you, brethren,
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the
same things and there be no divisions or schisms among you, that you
be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same
judgment. But we're in the same mind and
the same judgment concerning Christ in the gospel language.
We're in the same mind and the same judgment to determine how
God saves a sinner by grace. We're in the same mind and the
same judgment about the scriptures, what the word of God says. We're
in the same heart and same mind about what we want this church
to be and what we want people converted by the grace of God.
Oh, we're in the same page. And then let me tell you something
else. Here's the third thing. about the marks of this true
church. If you're in this true church, this church that Christ's
gonna make to himself, we'll be sympathetic and kind one to
another. Be sympathetic and kind one to
another. Paul said, weep with them that
weep and rejoice with them that rejoice. When people are in trouble,
when people's having heartaches, when people having sorrow, when
they're having sickness or something, we're sympathetic and we're kind
one to another. Who doesn't need kindness? Who
doesn't need sympathy? In fact, I go so far to say people
say, don't pity me, pity me all you want to, because I'm a pitiful
person. And oh my, we will be sympathetic
and kind one to another. Who doesn't need it? Who doesn't
need sympathy? Who doesn't need kindness? Who
doesn't need somebody to care for them? And when they get a
burden, and when they're weeping, who doesn't need somebody to
weep with them? When somebody's rejoicing, they
want everybody to rejoice with them. And then fourthly, we're to minister
to one another's needs. And that's one thing that the
saints are so good in almost every place you go. We're to
minister to one another's needs. You know, the material and physical
needs of God's people. If there's a sickness or a death
or people are not able to take care of themselves and take care
of their homes, take care of the meals, things like that,
that's when the Lord's people step up and they meet the physical
needs, the material needs of people. They need to go somewhere
and they can't get there, somebody else will see that they get there.
And then we minister to their emotional and spiritual needs.
When people, you know, sometimes all a person needs is somebody
just to shut up and listen to what they got to say. Instead
of waiting, you know, wait till they get through talking so you
can say something. Sometimes all somebody needs
to do is call you up and talk to you on the phone, and all
you do is just listen. And then they get through, they
say, boy, I've enjoyed talking to you. I really need that. I'll
see you later. And all you say is hi and bye
and grunt it a little. But you know, people, that's
what we have, these emotional needs. We have these spiritual
needs, and they're matters of concern to us. And God help us,
we are to do what we can to help. I cannot tell you how much people
have helped me over the years, just me, me over the years, just,
I could go on and on with it. And I'll tell you what, another
thing we'll do, we'll watch over one another. Paul said, exhort
one another and provoke one another to good works. We'll watch over
one another. We'll watch over one another.
What does that mean? Well, like I told you one time,
I go over everybody in this congregation. Praying today, I went over everybody
in the congregation, mention them, thanking the Lord for them,
mention them. But here's the thing about it. We watch over
one another. When somebody, you know, is in
trouble or somebody has several weeks or several days of being
seemed like something's wrong with, we watch over one another.
We don't spy on one another. No, no, no, no. We don't govern
one another's lives. We don't govern one another's
consciences. But we're to encourage one another. Encourage one another in the
way of faith. Oh, find somebody weak among
us. If there's somebody weak, support them. Give them an encouraging
word. Give them a hand up. Helping the people that are about
to faint. You know, and restoring people
who fall. Oh, my. There's a woman here
in the congregation, and I'm waiting to hear from whatever
her doctor said. MRI today, found a big lump in
a mass in one of her breasts. She went for an MRI today and
an ultrasound. That's about as I think of her
all the time. I hope it is nothing, I hope
it is just nothing but a fatty mass, that's all I hope it is. But she needs prayer, she needs
encouragement. She's scared, you know when you
hear those words, somebody tells you that scares you to totally
to death. You automatically think the worst.
But we'll watch over one another. We'll watch over one another.
And I'll tell you what else we'll do. Look here in Galatians 6
too. What the church, this church will do. I'll tell you something
else this church will do. It'll bear one another's burdens.
It'll bear one another's burdens. Look what it says in verse 2
of Galatians 6. bear you one another's burdens.
And here it is again, so fulfill the law of Christ. What did our Lord says? You that are weak and heavy laden,
come unto me. Oh, listen, our Lord bore our
burdens. He said, this is the law of Christ. And we'll bear one another's
burdens. You say, boy, I don't want people to know what I'm
going through. Why not? Why carry it yourself? You got somebody that loves you.
You got people that loves you. You got people that cares for
you. Got people that would love to get down with you and lift,
you know, and get under the load with you. To help you pray and
encourage you, yes. The strong, if there's any among
us strong, we ought to bear the infirmities of the weak. And
a person who's offended are to be, you know, are to forgive
the one who offends them. And there's something that the faithful ought to be patient
with the unfaithful. Now, there's people that we know that's not, you know, they may
go two or three weeks and it's not, they're not real faithful.
We're to be faithful and be patient with the unfaithful. I've often
wondered this, and I've said this before. If I wasn't a preacher,
you reckon I'd show up every Wednesday night? You know, I've often asked myself
that. If I wasn't a preacher, would
I go to the service? I've had a tough day. I've been
worried. I've been aggravated. I've had
to work. I didn't get supper. I'm tired, I'm aggravated. Would I go? Oh, listen, the faithful needs
to be patient with the unfaithful. And here's another thing that
we'll do. Here's the sixth thing. We'll
not only bear one another's burdens, that's the sixth thing. The seventh
thing is that we'll pray for one another. We really will pray
for one another. You know, when you pray, all
you got to do is just start thinking about all the people you know,
and just go through them in your mind, and I'll bet you a dollar
and a half to a county Catholic, if I was a betting man, that everybody you pray for,
you'd thank the, you'd say, boy, ain't that the finest, that's
the finest feller I believe I ever knew. Oh, I love that woman.
Oh, that's a, man, you don't, if they only knew what a blessing
they was to me, when you start praying for them. That's the way you start feeling
about it. That's the way you start feeling
about it. Uh-huh. And oh, and I'll tell you another
thing. Paul says, you know, forsake not the assembling of yourselves
together as the man of some is, but so much more as you see the
evil day approach. We will assemble with one another.
We'll assemble with one another. I don't know about you, but I
need you. I need this church. I need the
saints of God. I need their fellowship. I need
their prayers. I need to be with them. I need
to be here with them. I want to be here with them whether
I'm praying or preaching or not. And I'll tell you what, God's
people need that. We greatly depend upon each other
and are affected by our mutual faithfulness. You know your faithfulness
and your reaction to the gospel. has a great effect on me, and
I hope that my faith and my preaching and my life has a good effect
upon you. And I'll tell you, here's the
ninth thing. Here's the ninth thing. We'll show in this true
church of Christ, we'll show no respect of persons in the
church. Show no respect of persons in the church. Let me give you
two things here out of Romans 10, I'll hurry up here. He's got one more to do. Romans
10. Romans 12, excuse me, not Romans 10. Romans 12, 10. Oh, no, you know. We're not going,
we hope we're not like, hope we're not like Corinth, you know,
having our cliques and our schisms. You know, no cliques, no schisms.
Look what he said here in Romans 12 and verse 10. Be kindly affection
one to another with brotherly love. You honor the other and
prefer somebody over yourself. Prefer that other before yourself. And then look what he says down
in 16. Verse 16. Be of the same mind one toward
another. Mind not high things. Don't mind
high things. But come down condescend to men
of lower state. Don't be wise in your own conceits.
You know, position, wealth, worldly honor, race, social standing,
they're absolutely nothing among God's people. Absolutely mean
nothing among God's people, God's elect. Christ is all and in all. And in Christ, we're equal. We're
equal. And then last of all, in this
church, whom Christ will present to himself a glorious church
without blemish, without wrinkle, without spot, being holy. We'll be examples one to another.
We'll be examples one to another. Paul told Timothy, be an example.
Be an example. You know, the scriptures tells
us to love one another, in order to try to be an example, to try to be an encouragement,
to try to be a help. If you go through a trial, try
to be an example in it. If you're blessed with some health
and some success, try to be an example in it. If you're blessed
with a good education, Try to be a blessing with it, not try
to show how smart you are. If you got a good work ethic,
bless God for it and honor God for it. Use it as an example. And I'll tell you this in closing. If Christ be preached, only and
always, only and always now, this is where the gospel is preached
now. These marks that I taught, these 10 things, will be present
to some degree. We won't be an ideal church,
but I tell you one thing, we'll be heading in the right direction.
We'll be pressing toward the mark for the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus. And one of these days, God will
bring it all to pass, and he'll gather us all together, and some
glorious day, some glad day, we'll see this church And we'll
all be in this church that without spot, without blemish, without
wrinkle, and that's holy and without blame before him. Boy,
that's gonna be a good day. And that's the way he views us
now. That's not the way we do, but
he does. Bless his name. Our Father, thank you for your
blessed word, for the truth as it is in Christ. Oh, such an
encouragement, such a blessing, such encouragement to me. Oh,
Lord, I, after all these years, all these years, still, still
laboring, still seeking, still coveting, still desiring. Seems
like, Lord, I never get anywhere. But, Lord, I keep coming. I keep
calling. I keep looking. And, oh, Lord, I keep needing.
I keep crying. I keep hungry and I keep thirsty. And, oh, Lord, create that in
us all. Oh, Lord, thank you for this body of believers. God,
what blessings they've been to me, you only know. I thank you for them. God bless
every family and every heart. and our dear sister that's going
through this trial. I pray your blessings upon her,
your mercies upon her, for Christ's sake, amen. Well, Gary, can you
get us, what's that wonderful piece? Let's sing two verses
of wonderful piece.