In our text we have been dealing
with the reason for which we have not as of yet found ourselves
victims to the great apostasy and falling away and departure
from the truth of the gospel, escaping the great deception
that the Bible says will and has for centuries dominated this
world And I thought about it, the flattery of the ecumenical
movement, the weakness of our fallen nature. The only reason
that you and I have not fallen prey to these things, the flattery
of the ecumenical movement. And when I say flattery of it
is because the whole premise upon which the ecumenical movement
is driven is unity and oneness, which is a pseudo gospel concept. Who doesn't want unity? Who doesn't
want harmony? Who doesn't want oneness? Who
doesn't want to walk in agreement and peace with their neighbors?
That's part of a messianic and glorification doctrine. One day
there will be perfect unity. One day there will be perfect
harmony. One day we will even be at harmony with ourselves.
One day. And so who doesn't want unity
who doesn't want a cessation of warfare and conflict we all
do the danger of the ecumenical movement is that it flatters
you to that end while the cost is losing the truth a departure
from the truth Have you ever been tested by a call to be in
agreement with someone? And you know that the cost was
not telling the truth. I Have you ever been tested like
that? You understand the pull on the heart, right? And you
understand the inclination of your fallen nature to simply
agree with people because it's easier. Brother Paul, good to
see you. My eyes are getting a little
better. I can I can go out to the ninth row now. Good to see
you. And so I want you to understand
the spirit of the age as we move towards the end will always be
a spirit that professes to seek to unify people. And that attitude
will be universally accepted. The underlying nemesis element
or the damning element of that objective, that momentum, that
particular bid for unity will be that you will have to get
rid of absolute truth. You'll have to abandon the exclusivity
of the gospel. You'll have to get rid of Jesus
only. That's the real challenge here.
You and I can have unity with anybody on planet Earth as long
as you get rid of Jesus. So now if you're going to hold
to Christ, you've got to be willing to suffer. And the elect Those
who are chosen of God have been given the ability to discern
between right and wrong, truth and error. Not only have they
been given the ability to discern it, but they've also been given
the conviction to hold to the truth. See, when we saw back
in verse 9 through 11 of chapter 2 that God had given them over
to a strong delusion, the cause for which they were given over
to a strong delusion is because they did not receive a love of
the truth. It wasn't that they hadn't received
the knowledge of the truth. It was the love of the truth
that they might be saved, that they did not receive. And so
the challenge of the gospel comes to you and me saying, do you
love the truth? Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? That's the real challenge and that's the challenge that
you and I are going to face till we breathe our last breath. Do we
love the truth? Not do we know it, but do we
love it? And I know that on small micro
levels, you and I have been challenged and we have failed to actually
correspond properly to that proposition. I know on small levels, you have
betrayed the gospel. I know that in small little areas
of your life, you have compromised the truth out of self-preservation
or out of the weakness of your fallen nature or out of wanting
to simply comply with the crowd. Because I mean, let's face it,
every day having to say, this is the truth, I mean that gets
tiresome after a while, doesn't it? And if it wasn't for God's
mercy, you would ultimately abandon the truth for the ease and unity
of our present culture. So that's one of the reasons
the apostle Paul says, we thank God. And I want to press that
upon you again. You and I are bound always to
thank God because he chose us from the beginning under salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. We are bound to thank him because
had he left us to ourselves, we would reject the gospel. Am
I telling the truth brother peter? We'd reject the gospel. We don't
have People don't have power in themselves to stand for christ
The wind can blow you over any day and you'd find yourself as
weak as a feather It's only the mercy of god only the mercy of
god. We are still today contemplating
the great truths Of him who loved us and gave himself for us. So
we want to now contemplate how the apostle paul closes this
out we saw last week that the methodology are the the means
by which you and I are brought into a saving experience is through
verse 13, through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. We closed out on that point. That's in your outline
under methodology. And we had contemplated the vision
that Ezekiel saw in chapter 37, one through 10. And we closed
out dealing with the concept of which one is most essential,
the word, The spirit and we must rightly conclude that they are
both essential to our salvation. We need the Spirit of God It's
the spirit that quickens us Life comes only through the spirit,
but the spirit also uses the truth You shall know the truth
and what the truth shall set you free. I And that's in correspondence
with the work of the third person taking that truth and penetrating
your heart and penetrating your mind and captivating your will
or your volition and bringing you into a place of loving obedience
to christ Even to a point where you are willing to die for the
truth as christianity as revelation chapter 12 verse 11 and they
love not their lives unto the death they overcame him by the
blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they
loved not their lives unto the what a remarkable person to die
for christ isn't that a remarkable person it's a remarkable grace
of god in their life isn't it and we know it's only a grace
from god So the Apostle Paul tells us that these are the reasons
why and then in verse 14, here's what he says We're unto he called
you by our gospel now mark it now You and I have been sanctified
that is set apart. We have been washed. We have
been qualified to serve God That's what sanctified means set apart
washed are qualified and then put in the service of God and
by the spirit of God and through the truth of God, where until
he called you by our gospel. And so the point at which you
and I know that we are God's is when the gospel calls us and
we respond. The point at which you and I
may be able to say assuredly that I am one of God's elect
is because there was a day when the gospel call and you heard
that gospel and you responded to that gospel, didn't you? My,
she, here, my, what? We've talked about this before.
There are three calls in the Bible. Three. Three calls in
the Bible. The first call is the call to
life. The call to life, just for those of you who are new,
understand when you were born, you weren't an accident. I know
somebody said you were, but you weren't. When you were physically
born, you were the product of a predetermined purpose of God
Almighty. Every human being that's born
into this world is born on purpose. It doesn't matter what the circumstances
were, you were born on purpose. God knew the very hour that you
would be born. He determined it. He purposed
it. The place where you would be born. The circumstances under
which you would be born. The parents to whom God had given
you by which you would be conceived. The straight and difficulties
in the trials which brought you from your conception to the point
where you said, here I am God. God did all that. We call that
predestination. Predestination it is part of
the package. You'll see this in your outline.
It is what we call the unalterable process The unalterable process
before the world began God chose us in Christ He created the world
knowing what was going to happen And so God worked within the
framework of the process of the world to call many women to himself
That's what we call the unalterable process We own that god has chosen
a people for himself before the world began This is the only
reason that men and women are saved and in time God works through
some of the most crazy events To bring a sinner to himself
In order for that sinner to give god glory and to say it was all
of the lord all of it all of it i'm hearing some wonderful
testimonies of our sisters in our thursday theology class and
You're talking about from rags to riches, from darkness to light,
from woe to rejoicing, from an amazing story of horrific, horrific
debauchery and wickedness and neglect and turmoil to the grace
of God triumphing in that person's life, which is the message, isn't
it? That's what God does. He takes
broken things and puts them back together. Now this never took
God by surprise from the beginning. And so what we say is if you
think that salvation is a plan B, you haven't heard the gospel
correctly. Salvation is plan A. God had
always planned to save the people for himself. Eternity will be
filled with men and women without number on our part, God knows
the number, who will love him for all eternity, happy to be
in glory, objects of the grace of God. He knew that to create
the human race in his image and in his likeness and to leave
them free to do whatever they want to do would work out to
their ruin. He knew that. This is why we
don't boast in free will. We say free will is the reason
you're going to hell. Do you know every time God takes
his hands off you and lets you do whatever you want to do, you
do the wrong thing? Have you discovered that if God
doesn't guide you and keep you and hold you and instruct you
and lead you and bring you into a path of righteousness, you
will always veer off the course? So here's how we put it. This
is a basic principle. It's an axiom. When I do right,
God did it. When I do wrong, I did it. Put the wrong on me, put the
right on God. That's that's how you do that. So you own your
responsibility. You own your error. You own your
mistake You own your sin if you own your sin God will own your
sin if you don't your sin God won't own it The Bible is very
clear whosoever will confess his sins to God He is just and
faithful to forgive him of his sins and to cleanse him from
all unrighteousness All God wants the people to do is tell the
truth Tell the truth. You're a bona fide sinner from
top to bottom without the mercy of God in your life. Isn't that
right? So every day you breathe in and out thinking a good thought
towards God. Remember Philippians chapter
2 verses 11 and 12. It's God working in you the will
and the do of his good pleasure. That's all God's mercy. And so
this is what truth teaches us. And then there was a call that
came into our life and that was the call of the gospel. That
thing leveled us and brought us to a place where we had come
to know the truth as it is in Christ. And so Paul is reminding
the Thessalonians here in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 14, you were
called by the gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Remember that now when you heard the call, that's the
second call. First, there's a call to life.
Then there's a second call and that is a call to salvation.
We call that the gospel call. In that call, God now is sanctifying
you. by the work of Christ. There's
a final call to, and it's a call to judgment. That's John chapter
five. The hour is coming, John chapter
five, verse 28, when all that are in the graves shall hear
the voice of the son of God. And every one of us shall stand
before the judgment seat of God. It's a call, isn't it? It's a
call. It's a call. So you're called to life. Some
of us are called to salvation, but every one of us will be called
to the judgment on that last day. So the reason we preach
the gospel Universally everywhere to every creatures because we
want every human being to hear the gospel Because in the preaching
of the gospel Christ is able to call out his sheep and bring
them to himself And so now we move to the next The next outline
next point of your outline the calls point number six says the
cause the cause now this here is a small aside, but it's very
important just because it's in your outline the the cause of
our election is The cause of our election can be seen in 1
Peter 1, verse 1. I want you to see it. The cause. I want you to understand something
when it comes to your salvation. God cannot save anyone apart
from meeting the requirements necessary for their salvation
before he saves them. So by the time you come to know
that you are saved, God has already done some enormously important
work in your life. By the time you come to realize
that God has saved you, he has already accomplished certain
requirements that only God could accomplish. And so we read in
2 Peter, is this 2 Peter in our outline? 1 Peter 1, verse 1.
2 Peter is another truth though. 1 Peter 1, verse 1 and 2, these
words, are you there? Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ
to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Asia, and Bithynia. Now watch this. Peter an apostle
to the stranger scattered abroad notice what he calls him in verse
2 you ready elect According to the foreknowledge of God the
father. Do you guys see that? Elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the father through here's the means
again watch this sanctification of the spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ So then when you
look at verse 2, here's what he says Peter is writing to the
elect and they are the elect according to the what of God
the foreknowledge Now be careful because again in our pagan Humanistic
thinking we would define for knowledge is God merely knowing
something beforehand But to define it that way is to actually not
properly apprehend the concept of foreknowledge. God knows everything
all the time. Okay, so there's no knowledge
before or after for God. So, you know don't use it in
a sort of semantical or Sort of a method of terminology that
might sound nice God knows beforehand God knows all things at once.
This is what is meant to be omniscient omniscience knows all things
but for knowledge has to do with God having predetermined we were
elect according to the predetermined purpose of God. Understand that.
That before we came into an awareness of our election, we were part
of a predetermined plan of God. That's what that means. So foreknowledge
can be understood as a special relationship wherein God had
purpose for himself with you to bring you into a saving knowledge
of him for knowledge then is to be understood as a special
relationship wherever you read the term for knowledge we'll
be going to romans 8 in a minute when we get to the unalterable
process you can exchange the word for knowledge for the term
special relationship The word knowledge, genosis is our root
word, epigenosis in our context, it means a deep and intimate
awareness of something. The preposition for means to
have pre or to have before established a relationship with that person
or those persons on the basis of a covenant promise that distinguishes
them from everyone else. So when we talk about foreknowledge,
it's not that God knew you back then but didn't know other people
back then. No, God knows everybody back
then. You guys understand what I'm saying? Foreknowledge simply
means special relationship. Special relationship. And you
and I were elect according to the special relationship of God
the Father through, here it is again, sanctification of spirit
Obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Now. This
is an interesting take on what Paul said in 2nd 2nd Thessalonians
chapter 2 verse 15 because in verse 15 verse 14 rather Paul
said you and I Were chosen from the beginning unto salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the what?
Belief of the truth. Well Peter here is saying the
same thing So, let me help you The construction here would have
us to understand Three things election is based on special
covenant relationship, which God determined before the world
began But it's through the setting apart of the sinner by the work
of the Spirit of God Pointing them to and showing them the
obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ as the
grounds of their acceptance and Look at me. The obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus is the cross work of Christ as
the lamb of God that was slain in order for you to have a right
relationship with God. Peter is using the sacerdotal
language of the priesthood. When a sinner came to the temple
to reconcile himself to God, there was a lamb that was brought
to the priest. the sinner observed the priest
take the lamb slit the throat and the blood pour out at the
basin of the altar the lamb is offered up on that altar and
the blood is sprinkled on the altar and sprinkled on the sinner
what we are taught is that the truth is inherent in that doctrine
right there In other words, for us, truth is a person and that
person is Jesus who became the lamb of God to take away our
sin. Do you guys get that? Notice
again what he says. I just want to make sure you
get this. So I'm elect. We're elect if we believe the
gospel according to the special relationship that god the father
Predetermined before the world began but it's through the setting
apart of the sinner by the spirit of god Unto this is what the
spirit of god does he points you? To the obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of jesus christ. He points you to christ He shows
you christ your substitute and he shows you the obedience of
jesus Upon every precept of God in your behalf as your substitute
both active obedience and passive obedience From the time that
he was born to the time that he died to the time that he rose
again The Spirit of God gives you a vivid picture of what we
call the person and work of Jesus Christ this we call in a nutshell
the obedience and sprinkling of blood Do I have to say that
again? This isn't said I do As a metaphor, view yourself
as a sacrificial offerer. And God says to you, you cannot
come to him empty handed. And the only kind of sacrifice
that you can bring to God is a perfect spotless lamb. When you bring that perfect spotless
lamb to God, God will take that perfect spotless lamb and tell
you to stand right there and watch what he does to that lamb.
And when he does what he does to that lamb, slit its throat,
pour the blood in the basin, take the whole lamb as a whole
burnt offering and put him on the altar to consume that lamb
in front of your face. Take the blood and sprinkle it
on the altar and then take some of the blood and sprinkle it
on you and then tell you that lamb took your place So that
you might bear his innocence while he bears your sin That's
the truth of the gospel which points to jesus christ So now
watch this now. I want you to get this you you
and I have not arrived at a full understanding of truth until
all true Terminates in the person and work of jesus You have not
come to saving truth. If you read in the bible god
created the heavens and the earth that doesn't save anybody You
haven't come to saving truth. If you read in the bible the
law of god says you shall not worship any other god before
me You shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shall not commit
adultery or idolatry Are any of those things all those are
truth, but that's not the truth you need The truth you need Is
the truth about jesus? Who was the substitute for sinners
who bore all of god's law all of its requirements all of its
obedience in his own self Perfectly obeying all those precepts thus
qualifying him to be the only innocent lamb Now we get to watch
this innocent lamb taken by the high priest Slaughtered and offered
in sacrifice for the worshiper. The worshiper now has been given
a vivid picture of the truth Between him and God you are a
sinner You are under the wrath of God This lamb is innocent
But he took your place. His innocency is placed on you. Your sinfulness is placed on
him. This is the only reason you can walk away from this altar
without dying. This lamb points to whom? That's
what we call gospel truth. Are you guys following me? See,
the New Testament combines the term gospel with truth everywhere. We call it the truth of the gospel. the truth of the gospel. This
is why churches have to be very careful not to get caught up
in ancillary doctrine, peripheral doctrines, doctrines that don't
center in and land upon the person of Christ, for to do so is to
take the worshiper ostensibly into the presence of God without
the necessary sacrifice by which he might leave the presence of
the God accepted. Do you guys understand what I'm
getting at? And so not preaching the gospel brings a woe on the
human race. To not preach the gospel is to
lead the sinner without a sacrifice by which he's accepted with God.
To not preach the gospel is to let the sinner go away just as
guilty as he was, even more so because he's coming to the presence
of holy God. And so when Paul talks about
it and when Peter talks about it, here's what he's saying in
verse two. He's saying the job of the spirit of God is to bring
you to that place where you know who Christ is and what he did
to redeem your soul. It's called the obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Do you guys see that?
The obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
Now, go with me in your Bibles as we are dealing with the calls
to, oh, I jumped over point number five. I'll go there in a moment.
Go with me to John chapter John chapter 12 verse 30 and 31. Let
me see. Did it do I want to do that?
Nope. I don't want to do that Romans chapter 3 verse 21 through
26. This is the last one I'll use Remembered therefore then
as you and I are contemplating true the term true We don't want
to waste any time with the concept of truth disassociated from the
person of Christ the purpose of the Spirit of God is to connect
all eternal truth and to the person of Jesus so that that
truth has a saving efficacy in your life. So what I'm getting
ready to do now is just read in Romans 3 language the same
things that we have just talked about in verses 21 through 23. Watch it. Watch this now. But
now the righteousness of God without the law is what? So now
you know if you understand bible language what you just were told
was the law stands on one side The righteousness of god stands
on on another and the righteousness of god has been made manifest
But it's been made manifest apart from the law. Now. How can that
be? What's the answer in the person of christ? Right in the
person of christ. God has revealed his righteousness
to us He's not revealed his righteousness to us in a saving way in the
law He's the law is righteous, but he's not revealed his righteousness
to us in a saving way in the law He's revealed his righteousness
to us in a saving way in Christ So whatever God's standard of
righteousness is it's in Christ and because it's in Christ It's
available to be given to you and me now watch this. I He says
in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested
being witnessed by the law and the prophets Which means what
when we say the gospel versus the law? What we are simply saying
is the gospel did what the law could not do But what we are
not saying is that the gospel and the law are at odds with
one another What we are saying is the gospel shows us what was
done and the law agrees with it and The law says that's right. You guys get that? The law says
that's right. God requires perfect justice. He requires perfect obedience.
God requires sinlessness. That's what the law does. The
law is a cheerleader for God, but the law can't provide that
for you. Only the gospel can. Are you got that? So the law
is good. The law tells us what the standard
is, but the law can't clean you up. if you understand the law
properly according to Romans 3 is designed to drive you to
the gospel where you can find provision to be made right with
God so now watch this but now the righteousness of God is of
the but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is
manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets even
the righteousness of God which is by what faith That that mechanism
or that that methodology is critical to the triumph of Christ and
the triumph of the sinner Because what faith does is it demands
that you keep your hands off of the work that God accomplished
in Christ for you Are you guys hearing me? What faith says is? All that Christ did was enough
You don't have to add to it Faith exalts the finished work of Christ
and demands that the sinner who looks to it as his salvation
does not do anything to seek to add to it. Faith demands that
you stand back and simply agree with God that Christ is all our
righteousness. You remember Uzzah when David
was bringing the ark back home from The Jebusite land it had
been gone a long time during the days of the philistines remember
that and uh, david was happy This is where people get to stumbling
at david dancing, right? And uh, he dancing and going
on and having a good time because the ark is headed back to his
house But you know dancing can get you in trouble Dancing can get you in trouble
because it's all right to dance when you make sure that the business
of God is established. But don't dance beforehand because
you might have things shaken up. See, so as the ark was headed
back, the oxen upon which the ark was on, remember that? Stumbled. And the ark began to fall, kind
of like that Virgin Mary I told you all about that the priests
were carrying into the, remember that? I told you, you can go
on the internet and find it right now, they had the Virgin Mary
going down the aisle. One of the old priest stumbled
they should have I had a young priest in there and the whole
thing came tumbling down and they Nobody even tried to catch
the thing. Well other Try other tried to
catch the art. Remember that he reached over
there and he tried to stop it now had he stopped the art and
Got the oxen back on stable ground and headed back to Jerusalem
and You know what other would have been able to say I helped
the Lord Jesus Christ save you See I helped God bring reconciliation
and atonement and propitiation to the people because I'm special
see I'm special and what the Bible teaches us very plainly
now watch this now It's not by works of righteousness, which
we have done but by his mercy hath he saved us Salvation can
never be by human works Not one work on the part of man will
ever help God save you. You know how serious God was
about that He killed the man right on the spot See, and people
will call God severe, but God knew that if he didn't kill that
man, the whole gospel would have been perverted from that day
forward. And see, this is what we call works religion, where
God does most of the work, but then he needs you to do the other
part to secure that ark so that it gets to where it ought to
get. Perish the thought. So the idea of salvation ladies
and gentlemen must be understood as purely the work of God God
is accomplishing this now watch the language even the righteousness
of God which is by what of Jesus Christ our Jesus Christ or through
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe For there
is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God being justified freely by the grace of God through
the redemption that is in Jesus Christ whom God has set forth
to be a watch it now propitiation through what faith in his See
that's going to Peter's language. Remember that's Peter's language.
I Peter's language Peter said you and I elect according to
foreknowledge of God through sanctification of the Spirit
which turns the the mind of the believer Towards Christ and gives
him a view of the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ and says to the
sinner This is your standing before God what you see right
there is your only standing before God now believe in That's what
he says. Now believe and do nothing but
believe. Don't be like Uzzah now to try
to help God. Simply believe in the sufficiency
of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. That's what this text
is teaching and that's what Paul has been teaching for years. Now I want to back up and just
give you one verse in relationship to the unalterable process. This
is where we closed out last time for Psalm 84 verse 11. The Lord
will give grace and glory. I simply want you to go to Romans
chapter 8 verses 28 and 29. I just want to read these two
verses before we move on to the admonition tonight Romans chapter
8 verse 28 and 29. We'll get a chance to I think
develop some of this stuff later on down the line maybe in Yeah,
I think so. Yeah when we get into want to
talk about the classification of election this is a term and
a concept that's not often developed but it's important for you to
know so we read in Romans chapter 8 verse 28 and 29 and also verse
30 these words watch this and we know that all things work
together for good to them that what to them who are called according
to his purpose see it And these are idioms, these are phrases
and terms that expand the concept of what it means to love God.
Those that love God are the called according to his purpose. For
whom he did, there's that word again, foreknowledge. Do you
see that? Whom he had a special relationship with, he also did,
here's the word, predestinate. Do you see that? That is purpose,
carve out a purpose by which they would be, here it is, conformed
to the image of his son. Predestination is God's purpose
to conform us to the image of his son. Why? In order that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren. So God called
us to love him according to his purpose, having a special relationship
with us and having determined to conform us to the image of
his son in order that we, that Jesus might be the firstborn
among, watch this now, many brethren. So everybody that's in Christ,
according to God, looks like Christ. The goal of the Holy
Ghost is to shape you into the image of Jesus. That's his goal. That's his goal. Predestination
is conformity to Christ. Now you get to examine your life
and determine whether or not God is working in your life.
And here's how you can determine and know that God is working
in your life. As difficult as things are, what they continue
to do is drive you to Christ. That's how you know God's working
in your life. As difficult as the crucible is, it's designed
to do one thing, drive you to Christ. Because Christ is your
only solution. What you come to learn is that
in the classroom of God, there ain't but one answer. And that
answer is Christ. And you and I will be in classroom
until Jesus comes or we die. And every day the lesson is Jesus
is enough. Jesus is enough. Christ is enough. That's the lesson. And what God
uses is the soil of suffering and the soil of difficulty and
the soil of trial and the soil of pain, the soil of sin, the
soil of affliction, the soil of burden, the soil of the weakness
of the flesh, the soil of adversaries. God uses everything to bring
the believer to the place of totally depending on God. Totally depending on God. By the time you breathe your
last breath, you know what you will be saying? Jesus only. Only Jesus. Only Jesus. Ma'am, you got anything to say
before you die? Only Jesus. Sir, you got anything
to say before you breathe your last breath? Yeah. What's that?
Only Jesus. See what I'm getting at? This
is why we call him the Alpha and the Omega. The first the
last he's the last word for every one of God's people he's the
last word that's what it means to be conformed to his image
and this is the joy that we have when we lay our brothers and
sisters down on their deathbed and they get ready to cross over
as they are talking they're not talking about this that and the
third they're talking about Christ I can't wait to be with Christ
I'm looking for Christ I'm looking for my master my Savior The lover
of my soul, my Redeemer, my husband, my surety, my brother, my God,
my King. Isn't that something? Isn't that
how we talk? Mixed with affliction. Can't
wait to drop this veil of flesh. That's what believers do when
they're getting ready to die. And so the work of the Spirit of
God is to conform you to Jesus. So I'm sorry, saints, your suffering
ain't going anywhere. It's part of the process. We
were talking about this with our sisters. We were talking
with our sisters last night. You know, you're maturing when
you learn how to stay in the crucible. Am I telling the truth? Because we'd be wanting to jump
out. But you don't get made outside the crucible. You get made inside
the crucible. And if you stay in there and learn how to negotiate
the crucible right, are you ready? You will see somebody else in
that crucible with you. He'll show up and manifest his
glory. He'll speak to you words of comfort
and affirmation. He'll take you by the hand and
he'll calm down the heat. Just enough for you to know it's
his grace in your life. Am I telling the truth? Just
enough. Just enough. Just enough. So your hollering won't be bothering
your brothers and your sisters. Just enough. Yeah, no, that's
that's the way the spirit of god works. So you we we wonder
what's why am I going through all this hell? conformity to
christ conformity to christ Only believers know what that's like,
too This is why he says in verse 28 All things work together for
good to them that love god. It's really interesting My sister
said last night, you know pastor jesse said yeah, it's all right
for us to have ugly faith It's whatever kind of faith you're
going to have in this sinful world, but ugly faith. Do you
know faith is ugly in the fire? God didn't give you cute faith.
I know you think you got cute faith, but there is no such thing
as cute faith in the Mr. Trials. It's ugly, ugly. It looks bad, but it's glorious
in that it brings you closer to God. Am I telling it true?
It's glorious in that it brings you closer to God. Struggling
never looks good. Struggling is never pretty. I
tell young cats that want to do martial arts, I did martial
arts for years and I tell young cats all the time, now this choreographed
art style of fighting you see on television where folks be
running across the roof and they jump and fly over and then they
throw kicks and stuff like that. I said, that's not, that's not
the real world. It don't, it don't look that good in the real
world. Fighting don't look like that in the real world. Fighting
is kind of ugly and nasty. That's how fighting is. And when
you're fighting in the spirit for the redemption of your soul,
trying to walk by faith, it's ugly too. It's ugly too. It's the real world. It's the
real world that we're in the unalterable process is given
to us in verse 29 and 30 For whom he did for know he also
predestined to be conformed to the image of his son That he
might be the firstborn among many brethren moreover whom he
did predestinate Then he also called And whom he called then
he also justified and whom he justified then he also what?
So from the foreknowledge of god to glorification is what
we call the golden chain of salvation God specially related us to himself
before the world began in order that we might obtain glory. In
between his special relationship and glory is calling, predestination,
justification, sanctification, and all of those components work
to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. That's your life.
That's your life. That's your life. And until you
breathe your last breath, you're going to be in that process.
The promise is he that believeth on him that sent him hath everlasting
life and will never ever come into condemnation. So you have
to remember faith is future oriented, right? Faith is the success of
things. What? What do we hope for? Glory. That's what we're hoping
for. We're hoping for glory. God says
glory is ours. Psalm 84 verse 11. If he gives
you grace, he will also give you glory. If you've got the
grace of God, the glory of God is yours too. The glory of God
is inside the grace. The grace is what keeps you and
preserves you and prepares you for the glory of God. This is
why you have to contemplate the doctrine of glory constantly.
You have to contemplate it. You got to contemplate glory.
You gotta contemplate eternal life. You gotta contemplate being
with God. You gotta contemplate perfection. You gotta contemplate
an impeccable state, an eternal state. You gotta contemplate
it. Because it's gonna help you with the weakness of your flesh
down here. What is the price of obedience to Christ? It's
glory! And it makes all the suffering
worth it. So, let's go to the admonition
now. The admonition in your outline point number seven and it's in
our text go back to our text I got 15 more minutes before
I open the floor for questions I want you to see this the admonition
2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 16 This is what it says now having
exhorted the people of God at Thessalonica to rest in the gospel
having been called He says in verse 15 therefore brethren Stand
fast. Do you see that? Therefore brethren
stand fast and hold the traditions which you have been taught So
in your outline, it says stand fast in the what in the gospel
Stand fast in the gospel I can use this and so in your out in
your a Bible the term tradition is used and I want to talk about
that hold fast to the what tradition and And so I use the word gospel
because that's what Paul meant by the tradition and he's going
to explain it and we're going to look at a number of verses
to see that this is the case. When Paul is talking to the church
at Thessalonica about holding fast the traditions, which you
have been taught, whether by word or epistle, he's actually
talking about a process of which you and I don't go through anymore.
systematic theology class I taught us years a number of years ago
a discipline in systematic theology class called Bibliology and in
Bibliology what we learned was how the Bible was put together
Your Bible is a is a work of grace. It's a miracle The Bible
you have the Canon you have in front of you. Those 66 books
are a miracle Because they encompass Old Testament teaching New Testament
teaching 45 to 47 authors were involved in that work as we understand
it and the process of time was a good 1700 years in compilation
and what I mean by that is from the days of Moses, which was
1500 years before Jesus Moses wrote the tonight are the the
five books of Moses the Pentateuch Genesis all the way through Deuteronomy
Moses wrote those and then what we call the writings were the
books of Joshua and the books of the Kings and And and the
Psalms and the Proverbs and then we have what are called the prophets
So you have the law of Moses the Pentateuch the five books
the writings and then the prophets Those are three categories that
constitute the Old Testament in the Hebrew language is called
the Tanakh the Tanakh the Tanakh. The Tanakh is a hyphenated form
of the three methods, Torah, Ta, Torah, Tanakh, Nevi'im, Na,
Na, Nevi'im is for the prophets and Keterim is for the writings. So they combine those consonants,
put two verbs in there or two vowels in there and you have
what is called the Tanakh. But it's the Old Testament, Writings
of Moses the five books the Pentateuch. It's the writings of the the
Kings and Chronicles and and some of the Proverbs and the
Psalms and the poetic books and then you have the Prophets major
and minor prophets. So from Genesis to Malachi we
have what is called the Tanakh The Torah is not the Tanakh.
The Torah is just the law you guys got that the Tanakh is the
whole Old Testament how many books in the Old Testament? How
many books in the New Testament? That's right. So Old Testament
39, New Testament 27. Between the Old Testament and
the New Testament, we have what we call the whole canon of scripture. That work transpired 1500 years
before Jesus, and it was culminated about 200 years after Jesus. And what I mean by that is during
the New Testament era, where the apostles were preaching and
teaching, There were two forms of inspiration taking place oral
inspiration and written inspiration Oral inspiration and written
inspiration. That's why you hear paul read
in verse say in verse 15 Hold fast the traditions which you
have been what taught whether by what word oral or by what? written whether by word oral
Epistle written. So here's what was going on in
first century. This is well, this is fascinating I love this
in bibliology because it will demolish Bible worshipers and
Don't get me wrong. We need our word today without
a doubt you need the word because it's the plumb line but in the
first century the way the gospel spread for at least the first
hundred hundred and fifty years was primarily by word of mouth
and Very few people actually had
any of the new testament epistles Which means when paul said in
romans chapter 10 verse 17 faith comes by And hearing by It meant
that people basically had truth communicated to them orally that
what they did in mass was subject themselves to the preaching and
teaching of the word like you and I are doing, only they didn't
have the medium of a Bible in front of them by which they could
check the preacher out. They had to really rely upon
apostolic credibility and authority to communicate the truth to them.
Now follow me with this. This is why Paul and Peter and
James and John were so serious about the gospel because there
were many coming behind them Preaching and teaching another
gospel of which they would have to go and correct the churches
that they had already established By letting them know this if
they preach anything other than what we have preached count the
monathema Now, why is he saying that? Because we had not actually
finished the writings of the New Testament by which the local
churches could know for themselves whether or not these men were
telling the truth. So this is where we get into what we call
the perpetuity of the spirit or cessationism, which is a doctrine
that really needs to be understood. But in the first century, we
are certainly operating out of what we call the perpetuity of
the spirit, particularly in the realm of inspiration, in the
realm of communicating biblical truth. The apostles, Were jesus
christ representatives on the earth. They were his vicar They
spoke for christ and they spoke infallibly for christ When they
spoke it's as if christ was speaking through them to the people And
so to listen to the apostles is to listen to christ. Are you
guys hearing me? But to listen to other men who
alleged to be apostolic meant you had to try them. But the
only way you could try them is by what the apostles had taught.
You couldn't try them by your own subjective interpretation
of the Old Testament because the Old Testament now is being
superseded by New Testament revelation given to the apostles by Jesus,
which means you had to listen carefully to what the apostles
were saying. Now faith coming by hearing and hearing by the
word of God really required you to perk those ears up, right?
Because you didn't have a Bible. You couldn't just like, like
you can fall asleep on me like I'm doing right now. You can
fall asleep on me, get the CD and the tape. Now watch this
now. Get the CD and tape and go back and listen 10 times and
get it right. But you couldn't do that. No CDs in first century,
no tapes. If you didn't get it right, you
didn't get it right, right? And so in the first century, there
are a lot of battles going on with what we call tradition.
This is where we battle against the Catholic church, where it
would argue that the scriptures plus tradition still work today.
We would argue that it doesn't. The word tradition is the word
paradoxes. Paradoxes. Para is what we call
a preposition, and it's a transient preposition. It's like the word
parable. And what it means is to take
something and throw it alongside of it. You guys got that? To
throw it alongside of it. To bring alongside of. To pair
up with something. Parable. Paradox. And so when you have what is
called the paradoxes, that word doces, our root noun there, is
word or truth. It's from which we get our term
doxology. Or we get our term truth, orthodoxy,
orthodoxy, orthodoxy, truth. And so what Paul said is, hold
fast to the truth that was given to you alongside of you orally
or in written fashion, because the methodology by which the
truth left Christ was by word of mouth given to his apostles.
Jesus didn't write one word down. Jesus didn't write one letter.
He didn't write one book. Everything Jesus said, he communicated
to his disciples orally. Everything that the disciples
gave to us, they remembered by the work of the Holy Spirit that
Jesus said. So in their ministry, they are
going about communicating to the people of God in the first
century what Jesus had told them. Now your mind might say now,
how could they remember all that stuff by the third person? the
work of the Holy Ghost in John 16 is to bring them into the
remembrance of the truth of everything that Jesus had said to them and
when he the spirit of truth is come he will Bring you into remembrance
of all things that I have said unto you and he will show you
things to come Because he is the spirit of truth And so why
we say our bibles are miraculous is because the very thing jesus
said he would do he did he went to glory He sent the spirit and
his spirit Quickened the apostles and worked through them in such
a way that when they opened their mouth and communicated biblical
truth They were under the supervision of god to say precisely what
christ wanted them to say Go in your Bibles to John chapter
9, 17. I'll show you one or two verses on this as we wrap up
this part. So when we are talking about
traditions, really what we're talking about is just a methodology
by which the truth was communicated. We are not talking about something
in addition to the gospel as some would assert. We are simply
talking about a methodology by which the truth is communicated.
And by the way, you guys know that all through human history,
Mostly everything that we have preserved from antiquity is what
we call tradition It's passed down from one generation to the
next generation Orally or by some form of ceremony that allows
us to remember how our forefathers did it, right? Well, this is
true with the Bible too. This is true with the Bible too.
So the Bible is passed down by tradition It's passed down in
written form. So you have according to 2nd
Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 15 whether by word or Or by epistle
now, listen to what christ says in john chapter 17 verse 19 and
20. Are you there? Here's what jesus
said and for their sakes I sanctify myself. He's talking about the
disciples That they also might be sanctified through the truth
Neither pray I for these alone that is this is the disciples,
but watch this but for them also which shall believe on me how
through their word See here's what Jesus says father All these
men you have given to me except Judas Iscariot. I'm praying for
them I'm praying that you would work in their life in such a
way that when they communicate the truth Many women would believe
on me watch this through their words Now that wasn't a privilege
given to every Christian. I that was given to the apostles. The apostles were given the privilege
of being the New Testament prophets by which they could speak for
Christ in addition to the writings that were given to us in the
Old Testament. This is what we call the New Testament writings,
right? So there's one other thing that needs to be marked with
that. And there are many, many other examples with regards to
that. When God gave, when Christ gave the apostles the commission
to preach the gospel, Because they were apostles they were
pioneering a greater revelation Which didn't contradict the Old
Testament, but rather confirmed it, but it was indeed a greater
revelation I want you to hear this now. This is important.
This is where we'll stop Because the Apostles were given a greater
revelation in their apostolic call to take the Old Testament
and and to show that the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi
pointed to Christ. And then to take what Christ
would give them and fill up what we call the New Testament with
further revelation that would instruct us as to how this world
would end. In order to authenticate their
call as apostles, God gave them apostolic gifts. The ability
to heal. the ability to do signs and wonders,
the ability to bless and the curse with those gifts. In the
book of Acts, the apostles would blind men. They would damn men,
that is curse men. They would open the eyes of the
blind. They would also kill men. Acts chapter five, Ananias and
Sapphira. Peter says this day, You're going
to meet God, you and your wife, boom, dead. Now, God doesn't
give everybody that authority. You hear these megalomaniac preachers
in some of these nutty churches talking about having the ability
to kill you by speaking a word. I hear these nuts. I don't know
if you hear them, but I hear these nuts. They don't have any such
power. Therefore, don't fear them. I
know, you know, some of you got relatives if you don't go to
some of these nutty churches where the preacher talks as if
he's an apostle. Listen, Old Testament prophets
had the same power that New Testament apostles had. Why? Because the
scriptures had not been codified, we call it codified, C-O-D. Fied
codified in written form by which you could affirm or deny the
authenticity of what a person was saying So while we got to
listen to this nut talk if this individual is not of God Then
God would expose him by a true prophet If the Apostles came
along and find found out that he was pretending to be an apostle
where he might just get cooked The Apostles had that authority
not any prophets This is why I don't fear any of these nuts
who call themselves apostles and some hierarchical bishops
today in the church. The arrogation to which they
would, as it were, approbate to themselves this kind of authority
is almost blasphemous. Listen to me. You have a Bible
that is given to you in completed form. Revelation 22, 18 and 19
says, don't act, don't take away. God will add to you the plagues
that are written in this book and take away from you You're
the name written in the Lamb's book of life He'll take away
and he'll add to you the judgment if you would play with the Word
of God and dare Suggest that you have some special in rows
with God where you can speak to people on the same level as
the Apostles They must not be feared. They must not be regarded
They must be looked at if anything if you want if you just saw then
pity them because they've been deceived Are you guys hearing
me? Utterly deceived. Only the apostles
had what Paul called in 2nd Corinthians chapter 12, the signs of the
apostles were upon me. He had the ability to do those
kinds of miraculous signs of which only Jesus did. When Jesus
came, he healed everyone. When Jesus came, he raised the
dead. When Jesus came, he opened the eyes of the blind. When Jesus
came, he did miracles that were incontrovertible That's not what's
going on in your churches today. They're lying. And people are
sitting there and buying that, not understanding that the implication
of those lies is for you to get rid of your Bible and to trust
those men or women today as having equal authority with God. Are
you guys hearing what I'm saying? That's why Isaiah said in Isaiah
chapter 8 verse 20, to the law and to the testimony. If they
speak not according to this word, it's because there's no light
in them whatsoever. So when you listen to these nuts, open your
Bible up and see what they say. And go, as soon as he goes contrary
to one word, go, ah, God didn't send it. I don't have to fear
him. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
God didn't send it. The apostles had the ability
to speak a word. Now, in fact, go back to 2 Thessalonians.
We're going to close here. My time is up. 2 Thessalonians,
we'll do it like this. We'll just go back to chapter
2, verse 1 and 2, and you'll see it there in 2 Thessalonians.
Then we'll open the floor for questions briefly, and then we'll
get out of here. We'll come back and close up next week in second
Thessalonians chapter 2 Here's how the Apostle Paul put it when
he opened up verses 1 and 2 now We beseech you brethren by the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and by our gathering unto him
that you be not soon shaken in mind or troubled Neither by here
it is spirit. The word spirit here means teacher
or by word Or by letter as from us as that the day of Christ
is at hand see the contact somebody have been going around saying
Jesus is already come Some spirit has been going around saying
Jesus has already come by either writing a letter or giving an
oral prophecy and what Paul says is don't pay any attention to
the preacher to the word or to the letter and We already told
you how the process goes. It's not possible for Jesus to
come back until certain things that have been laid down in apostolic
credibility comes to pass. So you see he's coming full circle,
isn't he? He's coming full circle go back to verse 15. We're done.
He's coming full circle and he says to the saints at Thessalonica
Ladies and gentlemen believe those epistles that we already
wrote and believe our word Therefore brethren stand fast hold the
traditions which you have been taught whether by word or our
epistle And then he closes out with a comfort that I want to
develop more next week So the floor is open for questions if
I stirred your thoughts right now on anything you guys are
welcome to to ask or make an observation or we can close in
prayer. 10, nine, Mike. Romans chapter eight, verse 29.
That he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Yes, sir.
Yeah. Well, remember what we learned
two weeks ago about the firstfruits? The concept beginning, I said
that the term beginning, God has chosen you from the beginning.
He has chosen you as a first fruit. because the new creation
is done in the reverse of the old creation. When God created
the first heavens and the earth, he created the heavens and the
earth in six days, and then on the sixth day, he created man.
Remember that? Man was the crowning pinnacle
of the first creation. Well, in the new creation, God
reverses the order. He starts with a man, and that
man is who? Jesus. Jesus is the seed. He's
the Genesis. He's the beginning. And from
Jesus flows every other believer. You and I are the first fruits
of the new creation. God is first making his family,
his people, men and women created in the image of Jesus Christ
so that he's the firstborn among many brethren. The term firstborn
means that he's preeminent above all of us as our big brother,
as the original seed from which all the other children have their
life. And after God has brought in every one of his people who
are all like Christ, this is why we call ourselves Christians,
from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, that he's going to
recreate the present heavens and earth all over again, and
it's going to be inhabited by men and women who are part of
the family of God. We are the first fruits of the
spirit. We are the first fruits under
god because christ is the first First born among many brethren. Does that make some sense? Yes,
it does. All right another question over here over here. Dante You
can swing it back this way So remember now saints, uh, if any
man being christ jesus, he's a what? That's right. And our
new creature status is because of our connection with Jesus.
Jesus is the incorruptible seed. If you're in Christ, you're just
like Christ. You can't help it. It's a brand new DNA that's rooted
in the nature of God and in the nature of man, the hypostatic
union of the God-man Jesus Christ. You and I are partakers of the
divine nature. We cannot but one day end up
looking like Jesus, even if you don't look like him right now. My sister. Pastor, can you expound
a little bit on the dangers of getting wrapped up in praise
dancing? I've had that conversation with
my family before. I can only expound in it a little
bit because I don't praise dance. I'll tell you the real problem
with all of this showboat Christianity. Here's all the problem with the
showboat Christianity. And this is really a problem that goes
on in our churches. This is part of what is called
the regulatory principle of worship. Showboat Christianity has left
off with the principle of a crystal centric focus. So people come
to church to be entertained. A Christocentric focus has more
to do with the mind and the heart being fixed on the revelation
of God in Christ. Remember, the Spirit of God taking
you and pointing you to the sprinkling of blood and the obedience of
Jesus in order to assure your hearts that you're accepted before
God? So a Christocentric focus is a group of people who, when
they worship, they see to it that they don't do anything to
eclipse the glory of God in Christ. So when my sisters is running
around with leotards jumping and flying in the air in front
of us and doing the twirls of the dance, some of my brothers
have a hard time focusing in on Jesus because of the leotards. Going to tell it up. Am I telling
the truth? Now somebody tell me how you're going to see Jesus
in those white leotards doing flips and going on. Now, I know
my sisters, they'll say, now, you know, we just loving the
Lord. We just trying to say the Lord. Well, I'll leave it right there.
See, because it goes from bad to worse. Listen, it goes from
bad to worse. A little leaven leavens the whole
lump. You got these churches where they, you know, it's They
got these banners now, right? Running all over the auditorium
with banners flying and everything. They call that holy worship.
Now they go back to scrolls. Let me show you what's going
on when you do that. You don't realize it, but you're going
back to Rome and Judaism when you do that. It's works religion. It's ceremonialism. It's exhibitional
Christianity. And Jesus is being squeezed out
of the picture ever so incrementally. It's all about the flesh. Am I making some sense to you?
And it's so subtle because what you don't realize the devil is
doing, he's catering to your felt needs while he's taking
Jesus away from you. Next question. Over here. Yes. Um, the scriptures say many
are called, but few are chosen. I would like for you to expound,
expound on that a lot for me. Cause I really want to know exactly
what it means. Yeah. Many are called, few are chosen.
That's Matthew chapter 20. And there's a couple other places.
Jesus actually said that himself. This is where we teach the doctrine
of election. Uh, people think that salvation begins with them,
but salvation begins with God. This is God's plan. By the time
you become aware of your salvation by having received the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you've authentically received it, if you're taught
biblically, biblically informed, what you realize is that God
had worked this out way before you came alone, that you are
in the middle of a process that's leading you to glory, which is
God's work and God gets all the glory for it. Now, when we say
many are called and few are chosen, we are talking about what they
call the general call of the gospel that goes out to the whole
human race. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. It never says everyone will believe.
Nowhere in the Bible are we to be given any hope that everybody
will be saved. Nowhere. Nowhere. In fact, the
Bible says in Matthew chapter 7, Broad is the road that leads
to destruction, and many there be that go thereon. Narrow is
the way, straight is the way, and narrow is the gate that leads
to everlasting life. Now watch this, and few there
be that find it. So when you have these categories
of few and many, what you have is a warning that the gospel
was never meant for every person who hears it to be saved. And
therefore, if you are actually saved, if God has had mercy on
you and revealed Christ in you, your hope for glory is rooted
in him, you are one of God's chosen ones. You're not just
a person who has heard the call, you've been chosen. The difference
is the difference between, as we're going to see next week,
Jacob and Esau. The difference between Cain and
Abel. The difference between the 11
and Judas Iscariot. The difference between Paul on
the road to Damascus and those other cats that were with him
who heard something, but there was nothing distinct for Paul.
It was a distinct voice. My sheep hear my voice. That's how the gospel works.
That's how the gospel works. And so even though we want everybody
to be saved, we have no warrant in the scriptures to believe
that will be the case. You guys understand what I'm saying? So
many are called, but few are chosen. Oh, this is the awful
truth that we come to learn when God saves us, right? Remember
when you first got saved? I wanted everybody in Camel Village
to be saved. I ran around Camel Village telling everybody back
in the day. Back in the day, man, it didn't come to realize
people had other things to do. My brother would. That was 30
years ago. But listen. We've said this before. When
it comes to the doctrine of election, don't put a yellow stripe on
anybody's back and call them elect or non-elect. Leave that
business to God. Because until they breathe their
last breath, you don't know if they're God's elect or not. What
we love about the nature of God is that God is able to save to
the uttermost them that come to him by faith. This is why
we don't mind preaching to people on their deathbed. Now are you
ready to believe the gospel? Listen, listen, and people believe. And then right next to him, that
old cantankerous old man, he turned his head, put the sheets
over his head. I don't want to hear that. And he died the next
day too. He dies the next day like the thief on the cross,
the thief on the right side would say, thief on the left die. That's
elect, non-elect, both heard. Am I making some sense now? One more question back straight
back there. Straight back to that sister. That's it. We'll
stand up and pray. Pastor Jesse, the scripture men and sheep I
have which are not of this fold. John chapter 10. Okay. Could
you explain that? Gentiles. It's simple. This is
Gentiles. The 12th chapter, the 10th through
the 12th chapter helps us understand that. Jesus is speaking at the
dedication of the temple in Jerusalem. He's giving that great picture
of him being the good shepherd and having sheep He explains
very clearly my sheep. That's personal pronoun my sheep
personal possession Hear my voice another they will not follow
and then he says other sheep have I that are not of this foe?
He was talking about the Jewish foe The jewish folk remember
he said i am come for the lost sheep of the house of israel.
This is why jesus lived and died in jerusalem The whole world
didn't hear about jesus. Here's god And he stays in that
little region of capernaum galilee and jerusalem But his message
went through 12 other men who were to go where into the whole
world Because he knew the gentiles would hear the gospel This is
why when you move from John 10 to John 12, where I was going
to take you to a text, verse 31, and you go back up around
verse 24, you know what the text says? And Philip and Andrew come
to Jesus and said, Lord, there's all kinds of Gentiles wanting
to see you. And the Gentiles had come and
says, we would what? See Jesus. And when Jesus heard
that, you know what he says? Now is the son of man glorified. Now is the son of man glorified
and my father's glorified and if my father's glorified I'm
glorified in my father and straightway glorified and what he meant was
he now knows the fame that he had retained in Jerusalem was
about to spread throughout the world because it was already
reaching Gentiles Gentiles are coming to him, but he would buy
his spirit through the Apostles go to those Gentiles That's why
you read in Acts chapter 13 verse 48 and when the Gentiles heard
this They rejoiced and were glad. And as many as were ordained
unto eternal life, believe the gospel. And so the New Testament
is filled with multitude. Look at most of us in the church
today are Gentiles. We got some Jews, but the majority
of us are Gentiles because Christ has two foes, Jewish Gentile
foe, and they will be one foe. one foal. Other sheep have I
that are not of this foal. Them must I also bring in and
there will be what? One foal and one shepherd. One
foal and one shepherd. And so that's what Jesus is doing
now bringing in the Gentile people. Any other interpretation wouldn't
do justice to the context. Alright, let's stand and pray
so you guys can go home. Father, we thank you for your
mercy. We thank you for your time. We thank you for the word
of God because it's able to give us an inheritance among those
that are sanctified. It's able to Rightly divided
self in our hearts when we yield to your spirit. It's able to
warn us. It's able to Sanctify us is able to cleanse us and
so we thank you for your word We also know that by your word
faith comes so continue to strengthen our faith that we might trust
you and continue to lovingly adore you and Seek to obey you
as well as we go our way give my brothers and sisters traveling
mercies. We pray in Jesus name Amen. God bless you