Acts 20, I want to get my subject,
get my text, what I want to talk about tonight, there from verse
28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you
overseers, to feed the church of God. Why? Well, because He hath purchased
it with His own blood. That's why. And the Holy Ghost
has made you overseers. It's not a calling. Paul said
that, you know, the Lord gave him a ministry. A ministry that
he received of the Lord Jesus to testify of the gospel of the
grace of God. And he did that for three years
here at Ephesus. And I want to talk about the
church that he purchased tonight. I dealt with the church last
week. I'm going to say a few more things about it. But, oh
beloved, it talks about we're going to feed the church of God. That's one of my greatest responsibilities. And I love that responsibility. I cherish it. And the Lord's
people, they come wanting to be fed. Want to be fed. I believe every child
of God wants to be fed. I believe they want the bread
which came down from heaven. I believe they want the water
of life. I believe they want the light. I believe they want
the Lord Jesus Christ and what He can do for their souls and
has done for their souls. And you know, when Paul talked
here, he says in verse 21, he says, testifying both to the
Jews and also to the Greeks' repentance toward God in faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when we talk about the church
here that he purchased with his own blood, There is neither Jew
nor Gentile. Well, excuse me, there is a Jew,
there's a Gentile, but there's also the church. Now look with
me over here in 1 Corinthians 10, just a moment. Just a moment. Let me kind of set this message
up if I can. And Paul is talking here about
not giving any offense. Now, there is the Jew, there
is the dead child, and there is the church. And he says, give
none offense neither to the Jews. Now, you see, the Jews is a witness
to the Lord Jesus Christ rejected. First Corinthians 10, 32. It
says, now, give none offense to the Jews. Now, he's not talking
about believing Jews here, to the Jews. See, the Jews is a
witness to Christ, the rejected Christ, Christ rejected. They
said, we will not have this man to reign over us. They hired
false witnesses against Him. They rejected Christ as the Messiah. They rejected Him, and they still
reject Him. The majority of them still reject
Him as the Messiah. I heard a man say this morning
that Yom Kippur starts Friday, I believe, and Yom Kippur, that's
the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement. Just like
you know when I preached here the other day about the day of
atonement. That's the day of all days for
the Jews. And here's a fellow that's going
to leave work, going to serve, and going to worship, and going
to go to the day of atonement. The day of atonement. And he
said, how in the world are they going to be atoned? They don't
have a tabernacle. They don't have any blood. They
don't have a priest. They don't have a place. They
don't have nowhere in the world to have an atonement made for
them on the day of atonement. But they're going to do it anyway.
And so it's the Jews are a witness to the Christ rejected. Then
look what he says here. Give non-offense to neither to
the Jews nor to the Gentiles. Now we know about the Gentiles,
the Greeks, the Gentiles. They're all the time seeking
after wisdom. And they find wisdom in their own understanding, in
their carnal reasoning, in trying to make out a god of their own
imagination and worship the way that they want to worship, or
reject the way they want to worship. They seek after wisdom, wisdom
of this world, wisdom to prove that they're smart, wisdom to
prove their intelligence, wisdom to make it in this world. But
he says, give not offense neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles,
nor to the church of God. And oh, but the church, the church
is a witness. We're a witness. We're the church.
We're a witness to our Lord Jesus Christ and his accomplished salvation.
And as he's written and he says, at the right hand of God, and
that's why he says, Paul says, when I came testifying, how that
I kept back nothing profitable unto you. Repentance toward God. Faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ.
Watch the church. Take care of the church. Feed
the church. Oversee the church. Take your
place to preach the gospel. And that's what I want to do
tonight. I want to talk about the church. And first thing I want
to say about it is the church that he purchased with his own
blood, that it's glorious character. You know, the church has got
this character. And we're talking about the church, not just this
local assembly, but all the church, all the ones that Christ died
for. You see, it's a distinct body, and it's glorious in its
character. Now, there is the Jew, and there is the Gentile,
and there is the church of God. But the church is neither Jew,
Gentile, though both are in it. There's a Jew, and there's a
Gentile, and there's a church. And the church is made up of
Jews and Gentiles. But yet, God says there's neither
one. Now, how can I say that? Look
over in Galatians 3.28. I want you to see this. You say, well, you don't make
any sense. Well, I'm going to tell you. There's either Jew
or Gentile. Look what he said in Galatians
3.28. There's neither Jew nor Greek,
there's neither bond nor free, there's neither male nor female,
for you're all one in Christ Jesus. God Christ stares down
all the distinctions. He tears down nationalities.
He tears down races. He tears down prejudices. He
takes down, and all this wisdom-seeking, and all this rejecting, all that
is taken away when He puts us in Christ. How do you get in
Christ? For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body,
whether we be Jew, Gentile, bond or free, we've all been made
to drink into one Spirit. Now, in Colossians 3.11, This
is one of those verses of Scripture that everybody quotes all the
time, but it's a good one to look at. But the church is neither
Jew nor Gentile, though both are in it. And the Jew today is looking
for a coming Messiah, but the church that the Lord Jesus bought
is looking for a bridegroom. We're waiting for the bridegroom
to come. We've got our lamps trimmed and our lights burning,
full of oil, waiting for the bridegroom to come and us to
be with him. And look what it said here in
Colossians 3 and verse 11. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, barbarian, sithian, bond or freak,
with Christ is all. Amen. So you see, he purchased
this. And let me tell you the character
of it. It's just one body. We don't make distinction. Well,
he's a Jew or he's a Gentile. He's black or he's white. He's
from the north, he's from the south. He's from Africa, he's
from Mexico, he's from here, he's from yonder. We're all one
in Christ Jesus. And as God views us, we have
our distinctions on this earth, but as far as we all sit here
right now, God views this body of believers and his people all
over as one body, not male or female, not bond or free, but
as one people in Christ who is the head. And not only that,
beloved, but it's his own making. I used that text last Wednesday
night. He told Simon Peter, upon this
rock I'll build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against us. Now, beloved, he's the foundation.
The Scriptures tell us that God said in Isaiah 28, 16, Behold,
I lay in Zion, and Zion is the church, always the church. Zion is the church. Heavenly
Jerusalem is the church. He is the foundation. God said,
I lay in Zion for a foundation. A tri-stone. Tried by God. Tried by the law. Tried by the
devil. Tried by man. Tried by the Jews. Tried every way it could be tried
to see if it could bear up the building. And He laid it as a
tri-stone, a precious cornerstone, and left. And he that believeth, now watch
this, on him, that stone is to say that foundation, whoso believeth
on him shall not make haste. That's all in the same verse.
So that stone that God laid is him. And all we love in him is
sure. And then we're a spiritual house.
He laid the foundation and he makes us a spiritual house. Let
me read this verse to you. You don't have to look at it.
I'll get it myself. Read it to you. Hope in 1 Peter 2.5. He
says, He also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house.
Christ the foundation, we're laid on Him. We're as living
stones, are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to
offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. And you see, beloved, just as
God dwelt in the tabernacle, when they came there, His glory
was there on that mercy seat. Now, as God dwelt there, now
God dwells in His people. He dwells in His church. We're
in the house that He dwells in. Ephesians 2 says this, he says,
you know, that's what he says, that we're built upon the foundations
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself, the chief
cornerstone, a house fitly framed together for the dwelling of
God Himself. God Himself. You want to find
out where God's at? He's with His people. He's in
His people. He's among His people. And I'll
tell you what, one thing, and I'm going to write an article
about it maybe for this Sunday's bulletin on what we need a revival
of. Oh God, revive your work in the midst of the years. And
I'll tell you one thing we desperately need a revival of is for men
to have an understanding of the character of God Himself. that God dwells in this world,
and He dwells in His people, dwells among His people. And
beloved, I'm telling you that where God at, there ain't a bunch
of running and jumping and shouting and hollering. There ain't a
bunch of... You tell that His character's not upheld, His holiness
is not upheld by the way men talk about Him, and the way they
ridicule Him, and they bring Him down to their level. But
here we are, we're still here tonight. a handful of people
here in Cumberland County, Tennessee on Lantana Road. And God is dwelling
in us here tonight. And wherever His church is at
on the face of this earth, that's where God's at. That's what Paul
said. He said, you know, when man comes
in and you prophesy and you preach, he'll say that God's in these
people. But if you come in and they hear you speaking in tongues,
and you're carrying over a bunch of foolishness, they'll say,
I'm not mad. But he said, if a man's prophesying
and he's preaching, and the secrets of his heart's made manifest,
you know what he'll say? God's in that place. God's there. And, oh beloved, the Holy Spirit
does the building. He does the building. And He
builds it upon the foundation. of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it says He loved the church. Oh, you remember that? He loved
the church. And we're going to have a wedding here in a week
from Saturday. And I know Todd's going to take
care of it, but I do know one thing he'll say. He'll use Ephesians
5 and he'll say, Christ loved the church and gave Himself for
it. So husbands, love your wives
even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it. Now that's how, you know, we
talk about women get under abuse, but as Christ loved the church,
gave himself for it. Even so, husbands, love your
wives. I know he's going to say that.
I know he's going to say that. If he don't, I'm going to say
it. But he gave himself for it, and
then he cleanses it. And he purchased it with his
own blood. And it's his own making, and it's called out for his name.
You know, it's called out for his name. Look with me back over
in Acts. You're still probably there,
ain't you? You're in Acts? Look with me in Acts 15, just
a moment. This church we're talking about that he purchased with
his own blood and undefeated. Its characters, neither Jew or
Gentile, bond or free, male or female, one in Christ. It's of
his own making. He laid the foundation. Made
it a spiritual house. The Holy Ghost builds it. And
you know, they sing that old song. You've all heard this.
You know, I'm working on a building. The Holy Ghost building. No, we ain't building nothing.
If God don't build it, don't. Right? God don't build it. And it's called out for His name.
Look what it said here in Acts 15, 13. And after they had held their
peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, Simon hath
declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, watch
this, to take out of them a people for his name. He said, I'm going
to take out a people, what for? I want my name on them. I'm going
to put my seal on them. They're mine. I want my name
on them. I want my name acknowledged by
them. I want my name acknowledged on them. And watch what he says,
and to this the words of the prophets agree. God said this
long time ago, Isaiah 43, 21, he says, he said, I've called
out this people for my name, for my name. And then look what
he says. As it is written, after this
I will return and build again the tabernacle of David. That
means, beloved, that God's going to build the worship of David,
set him on his throne, which is falling down. And I'm going
to build the realms again that the rest of men might seek after
the Lord, and all the Gentiles upon whom my name is called,
saith the Lord, who doeth these things." Now watch this. Known
under God are all his works from the beginning of the world. You
see this calling, Calling out of people for His name has been
going on from the beginning. And from the beginning, known
unto God. He knew, that's why He said, so this, the prophets
agreed. He went to the Old Testament
and says, yes, God said He's going to call out of people for
His name. And He calls them His church, and the Scriptures tells
us that the Lord will add to the church daily such as should
be saved. Now, you see, a lot of people
think you know what that means right here. His church is universal. How many people do you think
he added to his church today? All over this world, how many
people do you reckon he added to his church? He added a bunch,
I guarantee you that. I don't know where he added them,
but I know he added them. He says he does it every day.
Such as should be saved. And how does he call them? And
how does he add them to his church? He calls them by his gospel.
Somebody said the other day, Drew and I was talking about
it, that yes, God can confront a man with truth out there. A
fellow can get out and preach a lie and say some truth in that
that will get up and, you know, strike a person's core. And he'll
start searching for that truth, looking for that truth. But I
do know this, that if God starts causing a man to look for the
truth, he's going to go someplace where the gospel's at, he's going
to find somebody telling the truth. And when he'll go here
and he'll go down, and he'll finally find that person, and
he'll say, I'm going to sit right here, and I want to hear what
you've got to say. Because God calls them by the
gospel. He don't call them with nothing
else. He don't call them to walk out. He don't call them to Except
Jesus, He just calls them. And He adds them to the church.
That's how He does it. Let me tell you something. Let me ask you this. How many
of you all have been called by the gospel? The gospel itself
called you. With the power of the Holy Spirit.
The gospel. Now I'm talking about the good
news. The good news that Jesus Christ did it all, all to Him
we owe. That you were utterly, helplessly,
hopelessly lost and could do nothing about it. That your righteousness
was as a filthy rag and is as a filthy rag. And you hear that
Jesus Christ came into this world and He by Himself put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself. And he poured out his soul unto
death, made his soul an offering to God himself, and he satisfied
and honored God's holy law, and satisfied his justice, and sits
down at the right hand of God right now. And have you ever
heard that and say, I'm going to cast my lot for that man right
there? Seemeth, will never die. That's
what I'm going to throw in my lot with him. I believe that preacher. I'm
going to erase that preacher. That's what I got to have, preacher.
And oh, beloved, that's how you add people to the church. He
don't have them jumping up and throwing up their hands. Raise
your hand. Oh, I see that hand. No, no. And I tell you, not only is the
church of his own making, not only is he called out for his
own name, but it's filled with his fullness. Look in Ephesians
1 with me just a moment. This is so good. Filled with
His fullness. What is that hymn we sing, filled
with His fullness divine? I don't remember what it is,
but there's a line that says, filled with His fullness divine.
Ephesians 1.22 says this, that God has put all things, and just
take the word things out. God has put all. under his feet. See, that's italicized. I mean,
that makes sense. That's good. But yet you can
take that out and it still says, God had put all under his feet and gave him to be the head over all, over
all to the church. You know the reason He put Him
in this position? That He could be head over us.
And you know, beloved, and watch this, all thanks to the church. Now, what is the church? He's
head over all to the church. Now, watch this, which is His
body. We're His body. Every body, you know, members
in particular, which is His body. The fullness of Him. The church
is the fullness. You look at Christ without His
church and you've got the head, but oh, He's got a body, and
that body is the fullness of Christ. Filled with Christ. Full of Christ. And He fills
the whole church. Every single one person and individual
in the whole church as a whole, He fills all of them in all ways. Now ain't that right? And let
me tell you something, you cannot be in Him without having what
He has. If you're in Him, then you've
got what He's got. Worn with Him, in Christ, of
Christ, through Christ. Oh my, we're worn with Him. I'm
in His body. I don't know what part I play
in it, but I'm in His body and He fills us. One with Him in every way. And
we grow up. The Apostle says we grow up.
I put that in a text. We grow up. You say we tell people,
grow up. It's awful how to tell a 50-year-old
man, a 60-year-old man, or a 40-year-old woman, grow up! You know, you
can tell a ten-year-old grow up, fifteen-year-old grow up,
twenty-year-old grow up. But everybody has to grow up
there once in a while. But we grow up in the hymn. As we grow, we grow up in the
hymn. In all things. Have you grown
up in Christ? Grown up in His grace? In His
knowledge? In His righteousness? In His
forgiveness? In His justification? In the
knowledge of Him? In the wisdom of Him? Of the
glory of Him? Of the appreciation for Him?
Of a love for Him? Of a thankfulness for Him? Oh,
we grow up more and more and more. And the world can't see
the invisible hand. They can't see Christ. But they
see His body. They see His body. When they
come in here, they see His body. And God help us. God help us
to live of Him, for Him, by Him, and say, because of Him, and
for His glory. So that's the character of the
church. That's the character of it. It's
of His making Jew and Gentile bond are free. And oh, beloved,
He built it. And let me tell you, it's privileges.
This church, you know, that we feed, this church that he purchased
with his own blood. You know what? We have some privileges
as a church. Oh, blessed, blessed privileges
as a church. And you know what the first privilege
we have? Occupy till he comes. You know,
over in Luke 19, you don't have to look at it, but Luke 19, 12
says this. that he gave unto him. A man went off into a far
country to receive a kingdom, and he left his servant there
with ten talents and said, Occupy till I come again. Occupy. And that's what we're
doing. Occupy. And I'll tell you, you
take like Brother Drew. He has occupied for so many years.
And how, you know, how folks keep from getting so
discouraged and things, and they do, I know they do. But he said,
you're going to occupy the Lord's country. We're going to occupy.
And you know when you occupy something, you know, that means
that you're in enemy territory. You know, so we're going to take
that country, we're going to occupy it, and we're going to
plant the flag. Well, God's done planted the flag. Christ is our
flag. Christ is our emblem. And, beloved, we're in enemy
territory. We're in enemy territory, surrounded
by enemies. I was at a place called LZ Hawk, right outside of Khe Sanh. We
were completely surrounded. Completely surrounded. has one of the most fearful,
anxious, awful nights that anybody ever
had to go through. But we occupied. They said, this is United States
territory. We've got an American flag flying
here. We've got U.S. Marines holding
this thing down. And you ain't getting it unless
you kill us all. And that's the way we do with
Christ. You ain't getting His territory. You ain't encroaching
on His territory. No, no. We ain't going to let
no enemy come in here and take over His territory. Are we? We're
in enemy territory, but we ain't going to let the enemy come in.
We ain't going to let him come in with another message. We're not
going to let him come in with something else. Our Lord has
entrusted us with His gospel. He's entrusted us with the gifts
of the grace of God. And we got these gifts to use
during His absence. And, beloved, He'll return again
one of these days, and He'll say, Enter into the joy of the
Lord, thou good and faithful servant. And, oh, beloved, even
now, as we occupy until here comes, our position is in Christ's
hands. Right now, we stand in His hands.
Paul says, we beseech you in Christ's stead, be you reconciled
to God. We're in Christ's stead. Now,
let me tell you something, beloved. We're either occupying for Him,
or we're occupying for ourselves. And oh, beloved, not only is
it occupied, but it suffers for us. And you know suffering is
a gift. And let me say some things about
suffering, but he says, not only is it given you on the behalf
of Christ to believe on him, but also to suffer for his name's
sake. And Simon Peter said, Hereunto
were you called. As Christ has also suffered for
us, we also should walk in his steps. You see, and here's the
thing, if any man will live godly, he'll suffer spiritually, his
soul will be vexed, he'll be troubled, Now listen, we live
in a world that's very troubling, vexing, fearful. I mean, this
world is in a horrible condition. And when you look at religion,
it vexes you. You look at the political world,
it troubles you. You look at the lives, you look
at the social, you look at the morals, you look at the morality,
you look at the psychology, you look at the education, You look
at any part of this world you want to look at, and you say,
oh God, save me from it, don't let me get involved in it, and
get me out of here, because this world is a mess. And you know, we don't have to
go out here and suffer beatings and things like that. It's like
loss, and it begs to his righteous soul, the conversation of the
wicked begs to his righteous soul. I tell you, so much of
our suffering is self-inflicted. Did you know that? Most of our
suffering is self-inflicted by acting like a fool, by being
self-willed, by deliberately going against the Scriptures.
But suffering for Christ is another matter altogether. And you know
all you've got to do is just deny yourself. Just deny yourself. When you're around people, just
absolutely take no credit. Take no credit for your salvation. Take no credit for any grace,
any gift, anything you have. Don't take no credit even for
your children. Say, it's in spite of me. If your child turns out,
by the grace of God, to be a believer and grows up and has some good
sense, say, it's in spite of me. Because it really is. And all denied self, said, just
absolutely take no credit for nothing. If you got a good job,
say, the Lord gave it to me. If you got a nice home, say,
the Lord provided that for me. If you got money in the bank,
say, the Lord probably got that. Because He did. You could be
running around in a loincloth in Africa if it wasn't for the
grace of God. We can be out right now, you
ladies can be out down in Nashville selling yourselves for $30. I
could be a drunk on Skid Row if it wasn't for the grace of
God. So what in the world are we going to take credit for in
this world? And we don't have to be recognized. That's not
why we want to be recognized. And I'll tell you something else
about us. We don't have to have things going well all the time. We want things going well all
the time. Things ain't supposed to go well all the time. And also, many give in to their
relatives and their friends and that because they don't want
to suffer them being offended with them. I'd rather be offended
with them than to go to hell with them. Now, that's just a
fact. And then we're not always suffering
with Him. And we occupy until He comes.
And oh, beloved, we're co-workers with Him. Paul says we are co-laborers
together with God. That's a mystery to me, that
what God does in this world, He uses us as His children to
do. Who's going to get the gospel
out? We are. Who's going to support the church?
We are. Who's going to pray for the lost? We are. Who's going
to tell them the truth? We are. And, oh, beloved, it never meant
to give you quickly. We've got the most blessed future
of anybody I know of. Oh, we've got a good future.
Kebby's got a glorious future. As far as this world's concerned,
getting married here, I believe that the Lord's going to bless
them. Oh, they've got a wonderful future, looking together, glowing
together, and loving together, and having children. It's going
to be wonderful. But the church, we as the church,
we've got a future that will not quit. You know why? Because it's looking for Him. He said, I will come again and
receive you unto Myself, and where I am, there you'll be also.
So I'm looking for Him to come. You know, when His disciples
walked outside Jerusalem with Him, after they'd been with Him
40 days, and after His resurrection, they're standing and talking
to Him. And the Scripture says, two men with white apparel stood
by Him, and He started going up in the clouds. And they just
stood there looking. The scripture says they stood
gazing. Gazing. And then the angel said to them,
you men of Galilee, why stand you here gazing? He told you
to go over to Jerusalem and stay there until he gives the Holy
Ghost to you. They stood there gazing. He says,
you men of this Galilee, why do you stand looking up gazing?
He said, this same Jesus that you see going away, He's going
to come again in the like manner. And we're looking for Him. And not only that, beloved, if
we're waiting for His Son from heaven, but we expect, if we're
still alive and remaining on this earth, to be caught together
with the saints to meet Him in the air. He ain't going to come
all the way to this earth. This idea that he's going to
come here and go back over to Jerusalem and set up a throne
over there and all that? No, no, no, no. He's going to
come, and the Scripture says that we'll meet him in the air.
And so shall we ever be with the Lord. We'll be changed in
a moment in the twinkling of an eye. And the dead in Christ
are going to rise first, and then we're going to get caught
up with them. Oh, that's why they said they'll
see him coming in the clouds with great power and glory. And
not only that, beloved, but you know what the church expects
to do? It expects to be made just like Him. Oh, what miracle
of love! The Father hath bestowed upon
us that we should be called the sons of God. And to us might
yet appear what we shall be, but we do know that when He appears
we shall seem as He is, and we shall be just like Him. He's
going to change His foul body. Changing and passionate, just
like under His glorious Bible. And last of all, look over in
Revelation 19 with me. Revelation 19. We expect to go to a wedding
one of these days. The marriage, you know this marriage
right here, is going to consummate all the ages. Look what it says here in Revelation 19 and 7. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his
wife hath made herself ready. Now watch this. How was she made
ready? And to her it was granted. She didn't do this. To her it
was granted. given that she should be arrayed
in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness
of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, Write,
Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the
Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God." Oh, what a future we've got.
What a future. We don't have much here, but
we sure got one coming. Got one coming.