As most of you know, I have learned
a great deal through my life as a pastor from Brother Henry
Mahan. Learned so much from him. We
traveled together so much for 20 years. At least once a month
we go somewhere together to preach and profited by his influence
so very much. I recall once we were away at
a meeting and he told a story. He said, when I go to Bible conferences,
I always try to come back with something. I try to come back
with a, good outliner too." And you can about always get a good
outliner too. And a story. And he told a story. He said, there's this pastor,
an older man, he got crying in his beer, as they say, feeling
sorry for himself. And he told some folks, he said,
I just feel like such an utter failure. Talking to his wife,
he said, he said, most of the folks I've baptized have left
the gospel, and most of the folks I've married are divorced, and
I just feel like such a terrible failure. And his wife said to
him, said, well, you have some reasons to be encouraged. He
said, name one. She said, Well, everybody you've
buried is still dead. And I guess that's an encouragement,
if you can take that. Turn with me, if you will, to
Romans chapter 16, and I'm going to try to explain to you something
of what you experienced this morning. And then I'll pick up where I
left off before we were interrupted so rudely. Romans 16, verse 17. I beseech you, brethren, mark
them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine
which you have learned and avoid them. Mark those who cause divisions
and offenses contrary to the doctrine you have learned, the
gospel of God's free grace, and avoid them. Avoid them like you
would avoid the plague. Don't go visit them. Don't listen
to them. Don't entertain their thoughts.
Avoid them. If somebody's got the plague,
you avoid them. You avoid them. Mark them and
avoid them. You don't have to talk about
them. You don't have to go around bad-mouthing them. You don't
have to talk to others about them. Just stay away from them.
their influence everywhere. Here's the reason. Now this is
true of all of them. Anybody who tries to deviate
you from the gospel, who tries to separate you from the gospel
of God's free grace, there's only one reason. I don't care
whether his name is Don Fortner or Bill Raleigh or Lindsay Campbell. There's only one reason why he
does it. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ,
but their own belly. They do what they do to gratify
their own carnal appetites and their own carnal lust. They may
use mean words or sweet words. They may use fair speeches or
complicated speeches, but they serve their own belly. Now, what you saw this morning,
is sadly just one of the outcomes of things that have been going
on for the last two years. I haven't mentioned Frank Hall's
name from this pulpit or in the study or to anyone here until
he showed up here a couple months ago in over a year. I love the
man as my own son. I've never dealt with a situation
as a pastor in 50 years that has given me more pain personal
pain, deep pain than Frank Hall. I'm sorry, but I haven't mentioned
it for good reason. There's just no need. You, as
a congregation, will never hear from me any kind of disruption
or deviation about other men when it's not necessary. It's
not going to happen. It's not going to happen. Some
of you will recall back several years back after man followed
Brother Mahan at Ashland and caused such terrible disruption
in the congregation, his name would never have been mentioned
here. And it won't be. And it won't be. He did what
he did because he's serving his own belly. And his name not mentioned. Not mentioned. It's not worthy
of mention. And you don't need to know everything. That comes as a shock to folks.
I know we live in this generation. Folks think they have a right
to do everything. You don't need to know everything. Maybe God
will intervene and rescue them from their evil. If so, you don't
need to know about it. And it won't do you any good
to know about it unless you yourselves are in danger. I speak to you
now about what happened here this morning, what happened here
a couple months ago, just because I feel like I have to. Two years
ago, I was in Mexico with Frank, visiting Brother Cody, Walter,
and their families, churches there. And I'd gotten wind that
Frank was teaching this idiotic, foolish, absurd, dumb, crazy
notion that the Earth is flat. Now, most folks got over that
about 600, 700 years ago. But he got the notion that the
Earth was flat. The heathen, you may recall,
used to believe that the earth sat on the back of a huge tortoise
and was like a saucer sitting on its back, and if you walked
too far or went too far out on the edge, you'd fall off the
edge of the earth. Now, that sounds silly, but folks
actually believed that stuff. Some people still do. They still
do. And I sat up till about 3 o'clock
in the morning trying to talk to Frank, another preacher, and
I said, fellas, I don't care if you believe the earth is flat.
I don't care. I don't care if you believe it's
square. I don't care if you believe it spins or it bounces up and
down. I don't care if you believe the
sun is cold and pigs can fly and the moon's purple. I don't
care. But when you start preaching it, That's what you're going
to be known for, and that'll destroy you. That'll destroy
you. And if you declare this strongly
enough, in order to convince yourself, you'll start to assert
that this is part of the gospel of God's grace. And that's where
Frank got to one year ago today. One year ago today. At our conference
last year, After the conference was over, I learned from several
sources who came to me because they were troubled that Frank
had gotten some of the young people together in a motel room
trying to convince them the earth was flat and he spent several
hours out at Larry Carroll Brown's house trying to convince folks
the earth was flat. And then after the conference,
things blew up. I confronted him with it and
Frank made the announcement plainly and has written things since
that if you don't believe the earth is flat, you believe a
false gospel, you worship a false god and nobody is preaching the
gospel except him, one of the fellow who preaches that the
earth is flat which makes the what he's saying, utter heresy,
utter heresy. And since that time, he's written
a lot of things and said a lot of things, but I have a lot of
folks who write a lot of things, a lot of things about me. I just
don't talk about it. I don't deal with them. And they don't
generally bother me too much. I said to some of you this morning,
I guess it would be art for me to say it to everybody, I've
just been kicked by bigger jackasses and it doesn't bother me that
much. It bothers me. when it bothers you. And I'm
sorry for what you had to endure this morning. Hope it doesn't
happen again, but I urge you, I urge you, don't listen. Don't, don't listen to one word. You get intrigued, and all of
a sudden, you're gone. Something that takes your heart
and your mind off Jesus Christ and him crucified is of the devil. Even if it's true, it's of the
devil. Don't be enticed by false prophets. But thank God, thank God, this
too is in his providence. He rules the universe. He controls all men and all the
thoughts and actions of men, the righteous and the wicked,
and he does it for the benefit of some folks that Paul describes
here in this 16th chapter of Romans. men and women in Christ,
in Christ. Believers are described here
11 times as people who are in Christ. Look at our text in verse
seven. Salute Andronicus and Julia,
my kinsmen, my fellow prisoners, who are of note among the apostles. who also were in Christ before
me. They were converted before I
was. But God's people are all in Christ. Those words speak
not only as our Lord does often in scripture about God's grace
and mercy and truth being in Christ, about God's works of
grace being in Christ, about God's salvation being in Christ.
But these words speak of something indescribably more mysterious
than those things if I could use such language. You and I,
who are God's are one with Christ. In John Chapter 17, our Savior
prays that the Father would cause the world to know that we are
one with Him and He one with us. And before God is done with
all things in time, Everybody in heaven, hell, and earth will
know that Christ and his people are one. Really and truly one. As we read this morning in Ephesians
chapter 5 and verse 30, members of his body, of his flesh, and
of his bones. Members of his body, of his flesh,
and of his bones. God's people are truly one with
the God-man, our mediator, Jesus Christ. As truly one with Him
as He is one with the Father. And God sees us always as we
really are in Christ. United to Him is not strong enough
a word, but one with Him. in perfect, complete, everlasting
union with Him. This union becomes manifest when
a person is born again, given life and faith in Christ. But
the union is an everlasting, eternal union that is ours with
the Savior. Our Lord Jesus Christ and His
people are of the same nature. Our Savior came here in our flesh
one in our flesh and walked on this earth in real humanity. He did not cease to be God. but rather he took in union with
himself our manhood so that he is as fully God as though he
were not man, as fully man as though he were not God. We spell
it G-O-D-M-A-N. It would be all right to spell
it M-A-N-G-O-D. He is the man who is God. He is God who is the man. and all that man knows of God
is in that mediator who is the revelation of the triune God,
Jesus Christ our Lord. But it took on our flesh, not
for his benefit, but for ours. He came here as a representative
man, and everything he did, everything he experienced, and everything
he is as a man, God's people experience and are in Him. Everything. Everything. Oh, if
you could get a hold of that. If I could get, maybe I ought
to say, if that could get a hold of me. Oh, what good it would
do our souls. Paul says, I was crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith
of, not faith in, by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Jesus Christ, in his faithful
obedience to God, brought in everlasting righteousness, perfectly
obeying God, and he fully satisfied the justice of God by his death
at Calvary. And you and I, who are his, lived
in perfect righteousness in him, and died under the wrath of God,
suffering all the fury of God's hell-hot wrath in his son, Jesus
Christ the Lord, until justice was fully satisfied. And now
we are seated with him in heaven. We are risen together with Christ
seated with him at the right hand of the majesty on high You
mean brother John we're going to be yes, we're going to be
and we are read the book of God as it stated and when you read
the scriptures Don't be afraid of something seeming confusing. Don't be afraid of something
being, I don't see how these two things can fit together.
There's a lot of things in this book, I don't see how they fit
together. I don't see how God can be infinite and yet all the
fullness of the triune God dwell in his son, but it's true. I
don't know how God can be eternal, immutable, God who is life and
never be touched by anything can come here in human flesh
and God could die in our stead and yet never die, but he did.
Acts 20, 28 says so. And in the scriptures, we're
told that Jesus Christ is one with us and we one with him. We have a real union of the same
nature. He took on himself our nature
permanently. In the new birth, it becomes
manifest to each of God's elect, to every redeemed sinner, that
we are truly one with Christ when he gives us his nature. Now turn with me, if you will,
to 1 Peter, 2 Peter chapter one and verse four. 2 Peter chapter
one and verse four. This is what the new birth is.
It is the forming of Christ in you. Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Nobody has any hope before God
until he has Christ formed in him, giving him hope. Until he's
born again by the Spirit of God. Look at 1 Peter chapter 2, or
chapter 1 verse 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises. that by these ye might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust. We are carnal, sold under sin,
that's our nature. But the Lord Jesus has made us
spiritual by a divine creation, by the creation in us of his
nature. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, and
behold, all things are become new. I have often been warned, especially
when I was younger, folks have given up these days, don't carry
things too far. Will you hear me? You can't carry
anything written in this book too far. Our problem is we don't
carry it far enough. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Now as spiritual men and women,
you and I have a new divine nature, described in Ephesians 4, 24
this way, that new man created in righteousness and true holiness,
so that he has made us whole, making us body, soul, and spirit. in the complete restoration of
manhood. When Adam sinned in the garden,
God told him, said, in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die. But if you read the scriptures,
Adam's still walking around. And he's still talking. He and
Eve are still in the garden. He doesn't look dead to me. He
died not physically, but spiritually. Immediately, he who was created
in the image of God, created in the image of that man, the
last Adam, whom God would create to be his own image. The only
one described in scripture as the image of God. Adam was created
in the image of Jesus Christ, the God man, our mediator, who
would come in the fullness of time to redeem us, body, soul,
and spirit. Created like the Lord Jesus,
a man upright. But when he died, he died spiritually
so that he is nothing but body and soul. Spirit dead. When Christ comes in the new
birth, he makes man whole. He makes the heaven born soul,
body, soul and spirit. So that now, you who are God's,
Cry out to God in prayer, just like he did while he was here.
Your meat and drink is to do the will of your father, just
as it was his. In agony of soul, you strive
against sin. Your heart beats with love for
God. Your life is marked by one goal. You long for God to be glorified. Tell me, my brother, tell me,
my sister, is this not what you want in the depth of your soul? Father, glorify thy name. That's the desire of the heaven-born
soul. You can't be satisfied until
you're awake in the likeness of him after whose image you
were created. Now, that sheds a little light
on those words in Ephesians 5 and verse 30. We are members of his
body, of his flesh and of his bones. He bears our nature in
heaven and we bear his nature upon earth. You remember what
Sister Mabel Dix said a couple of years ago, maybe a year ago,
I can't remember, time gets away from me. One day Marilyn was
talking to her and she said, I'm in Christ and Christ is in
me, everything's all right. I'm in Christ, and Christ is
in me. Everything is just all right.
We are one with Christ. We live in him, and he lives
in us. Not only are we the same nature,
but being married to Christ, being wed to Christ, being in
union with Christ, we have an intimate relationship, our Savior
and we. It seems unlikely that Adam would
have said she is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh
if he had thought that Eve might disappear or become the wife
of another. Eve was Adam's help meat, joined
to him in the bonds of intimate communion. Therefore, he didn't
simply say she is now of the same bone and flesh as I am,
but he said she is bone of my bone. flesh of my flesh." And
Paul quotes those very words concerning us. We are members
of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. As Adam said concerning
Eve, we have this indescribably intimate union with our Savior. There's no relationship upon
the earth nearer, sweeter, and dearer or more blessed than marriage,
as it ought to be. It is a relationship of love,
of joy, and peace. It's divinely ordained, this
union of a man and a woman, that this union be dissolved only
by death. Now think of this. You women,
as is your relationship to your husband, You men, as is your
relationship to your wives, such is the relationship that exists
between you as a believer and the son of God. This is the nearest, dearest,
sweetest, most intense, closest, most intimate relationship that
can be imagined. It's far more intimate than that
of parents and children. Parents may forget their children
or fail to have compassion upon their sons and daughters, but
Jehovah will never forget or neglect his wife. Children, at
least when they're small, can't enter into the thoughts and feelings
of their parents, but the wife, Somehow or another she communes
with her husband to such intimacy that she knows him. She knows
his cares, his sorrows, his joys, his delights. His very will, she knows him. She knows him. Shelby and I have
been married nearly 50 years and we will find ourselves literally
saying exactly the same thing at the same time. I mean, literally
saying exactly the same words about something at the same time
because we're a lot alike. We know each other. Children,
on the other hand, are born and raised for separation. A good father raises his children
to be separated from him, to live on their own. with their
own husbands and wives. I didn't much like it, but I
was delighted the day I performed Wedding for My Daughter and Her
Husband. Some of you were there, most
of you were. We got through it pretty good until I caught her
eye and she caught mine. Then we had to pause for a minute
because it was a tender moment. But I wouldn't change it for
the world. That's what I raised her for,
to be a wife. and a mother to leave my house
and go be somebody else's, to cut the apron strings and go
be wed to another. The Lord Jesus has taken us into
union with himself as his bride, his wife. And she cries to him,
let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. His love is better
than wine. I've been trying to think all
week how to best illustrate what I'm talking about. Our Savior
espoused us to Him in eternity. And He, in our lives, courted
us and gives us illustrations of it. You remember when Boaz
came riding in his fields and he saw Ruth. He began to court
that girl. I mean, he began to court her.
He filled her up with as much corn as she could carry home.
And then he said, you come have dinner with me. And they're sitting
at the table. And I don't know what customers
were, but he reached his cornbread over in a little gravy and dipped
it in. He said, here, honey, have a bite. He courted her. He courted her. Hosea found Gomer,
and he courted her a different way, but he courted her. He said,
I will lure you into the wilderness, and I'll speak comfortably to
you. Our Savior, by His providence and by His grace, graciously
courts us to make our hearts putty in His
hands. to make us willing to have him
as Lord and Savior. He redeemed us for himself. He
prepared our wedding garments for us and he comes in the time
of love and takes us into union with himself. Blessed be God
my maker, my redeemer, my king, my savior, the ruler of all things
is my husband. We're members of his body, of
his flesh, and of his bones. Is this the kind of relationship
you have with Christ? Are you wed to him? Believers
are. Faith is nothing less than the
wedding of my heart willingly to the Son of God. It is nothing
less than willingly giving myself to him. But there's something
deeper still. These words certainly declare
this mysterious origin. Our Lord Jesus, our Redeemer,
the last Adam is like the first Adam in many ways. As Eve was
taken from the side of Adam, so the church of God is born
from the pierced side of Jesus Christ the Lord. Our Savior knows
well from where His church came. She came from Himself. He said,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it dies, it brings forth
much fruit. And He willingly went to the
grave for us, that we might live with Him and through Him. The
church springs from Christ as Levi sprung from the ruins of
Abraham and the church lives upon Christ. This is the church
that cometh up out of the wilderness leaning on her beloved. She's
ravished with the Savior's love. Her desire is toward her beloved.
She said as a seal upon his arm and upon his heart, she's loved
with him. with a love by him, with a love
stronger than death. Oh, what a blessed privilege
then to be one of his and one with him, members of his body
and of his flesh. There's something else implied
here, this union. This union compared to a marriage.
These words imply a loving possession. A loving possession. She is now
bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She belongs to me. For many years, we willingly,
gladly lay in the arms of another like Gomer. But all the while,
we belong to him. just like Gomer belonged to Hosea
still. And the Lord Jesus redeemed us
by price and by power and made us his own. And he conquered
our hearts with his love. And we're taken possession of.
And he is. He is. Lock, stock and barrel. But there's more than that. Listen
to me. He who sets yonder in glory,
God in my nature, all that He is, is my He is as much my possession as
I am His possession. He made it so. He gave Himself
to me. And so it is with you, my brother,
my sister. This union is vital. It's vital to Him and vital to
us. Back in Ephesians chapter 1,
the Apostle tells us that we are the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all. He cannot be complete. If one
member of his body is absent, he as the mediator cannot be
complete if one whom he represents is not saved. He cannot be complete
as our surety if one for whom his surety dies. He cannot be
complete if one for whom he shed his blood is not redeemed by
his blood. We are the fullness of him that
filleth all in all and our life Him is vital to us. He compares
it to vine branches. You take a tree and you want
to graft another into the tree. You have to cut the original
tree. You have to cut a branch from
the other tree and you bring the two together and they're
bound together. until the grafted draws all its
life from the root stock. That's what
we are in Christ. He was wounded for our transgressions
and we wounded by his spirit. Bound together to him, drawing
life continually from him. This union that we have. a wondrous,
wondrous, intimate, vital union. Being one with Christ Jesus our
Lord, we are one with Him eternally, so that for as long as Christ
has been the Christ. That's a redundant statement,
you understand. He is the eternal Christ. For as long as Christ
has been the Christ, we have been one with Him. One with Him
secretly until He revealed Himself in us, but one with Him. One
with Him as our surety, representing us in all things. One with Him
by living faith. One with Him in heart. This secures much for us. Because we are one with Christ,
we're completely safe with him. We sometimes fear things. We
sometimes think that we're in danger of something. But as long
as the head is above water, the body's all right. And we are
perfectly safe and secure in him. Not only is our union with
Christ our safety, Being one with him, we shall certainly
and forever enjoy his love. As the father hath loved me,
he said, so have I loved you. Continue you in my love. We are loved by God with the
same love with which he loves his son. We are accepted by the
triune God with the same acceptance, approval, and delight as He gives
to His Son. We are eternally, immutably loved
and accepted by the triune God just exactly for the same reason. as his eternal son is immutably
loved, accepted, and approved of by him because of his obedience
as our substitute and surety. This is what he said. Therefore
doth my father love me because I lay down my life for the sheep.
Well, surely, Brother Don, the father loved the son before that,
yes, but he's talking about himself as the shepherd of the sheep.
earned my Father's love by my obedience unto death." And he earned it for David Burge. He earned it for me so that the
Lord God would embraces us as He embraces His Son, one with
His Son. Ruth sang so well this morning
in the Beloved. In the Beloved accepted am I. God sees my Savior. In Him He sees me. In the Beloved accepted. and one day He will present us
before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, holy and
without blame, perfect as He is perfect. And He will give
us all that the Father, the triune Jehovah, has given Him in obedience. He said, the glory which thou
hast given Me, I have given them. And we shall stand forever one
with Christ, bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh. And we will
forever wear His name. We will forever wear his name. Now, other fellows can do what
they want to. I won't try to tell other preachers what to
do, but if I were to be asked by somebody to marry a couple
and the wife refused to take her husband's name, I'd say go
get somebody else to do it. No, I'm not going to. I am not
about to join this politically incorrect generation. God's people
in their marriages, Have a perpetual illustration of this blessed
union. And when the Lord Jesus married
you, he gave you his name. Mark Henson and Regina Henson,
this is your name. Jehovah Shekinah, the Lord, our
righteousness. That's what he says. Jeremiah
chapter 33, verse 16. But that's his name. with him,
his righteousness, his nature, all is mine. I don't know what
Adam understood of what he said, but I understand why he said
it. Paul quotes Adam back in Genesis Chapter 2. The Lord God
brought Eve to Adam, presented Eve to Adam as his wife, and
Adam said, for this cause, shall a man leave his father and his
mother and shall be joined unto his wife. But Lindsay Adam didn't have
a father to leave. He didn't have a mother to leave. Obviously,
the words were prophetic because we are members of his body, of
his flesh, of his bones. God, our Savior, left his father
and came here to earn for us acceptance with
his father to put away our sins and bring us to his father because
of his utter consecration to you, to me. because of his utter consecration
to you and me. And whenever you come to know
by the sweet experience of his grace what it is to be wed to
Christ and one with Christ, member of his body, of his flesh, and
of his bones, You forsake father and mother,
and brother and sister, and your own life also in utter consecration
to Christ. That's called faith. And we need
from the Spirit of God fresh, constant revelations of His grace,
fresh, constant revelations of our Redeemer, fresh outpourings
of His all-sufficient grace that our hearts may be drawn to Him
in consecration forever. God make it so for Christ's sake.
Amen.