There's a better song than that.
I don't know what it is. I love that hymn. Would you turn
with me to first Corinthians chapter 14? Our subject for this evening is the
edifying of the church. Let's begin reading in verse
12. Even so, ye, for as much as you're
zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may excel to the edifying
of the church. Wherefore, let him that speaketh
in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray
in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding
is unfruitful. What is it then? I'll pray with
the Spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will
sing with the Spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.
Else, when thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that
occupieth the room of the unlearned say, Amen, at thy giving of thanks,
seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou verily
givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. I thank my God
I speak with tongues more than ye all, yet in the church. I'd
rather speak five words with my understanding that by my voice
I might teach others also than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue. Brethren, be not children in
understanding. How be it in malice be ye children,
but in understanding be men. In the law, it's written with
men of other tongues and other lips while I speak unto this
people, and yet for all that they'll not hear me, saith the
Lord. Wherefore, tongues are for a sign, not to them that
believe, but to them that believe not. But prophesying serveth
not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. If
therefore the whole church be come together into one place
and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are
unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say, you're mad? But
if all prophesy. And there come in one that believeth
not, or one unlearned. He's convinced of all. He's judged
of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest. And
so, falling down on his face, he'll worship God and report
that God is in you of a truth. How is it then, brethren, when
you come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine,
hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation? Let all
things be done unto Ediphi. Now this passage is probably
most of you know is used to teach that there's a heavenly prayer
language that those who have the gift of tongues use. They
pray in another language and their spirit is edified, but
they don't know what they're saying. They have no idea what
they're saying, but somehow their spirit is edified and built up. And that's part of the gift of
tongues. Now, we've seen in recent weeks that. Those gifts have
ceased. Paul or in Acts chapter eight,
it says when Simon Magus saw that through the laying on of
the apostles hands. The Holy Spirit was given. It's
only through the laying on of the apostles' hands that these
gifts were transferred. And with the death of the apostles,
there wasn't anybody left to be able to transfer these gifts. So this teaching of our day regarding
the charismatic movement, speaking in tongues, miracles and so on
is phony. That's all you can call it. It's
phony. It's ceased with the apostles and those who practice it are
not being honest. Now, I don't want to have a harsh
attitude about that. I want to have a broken attitude,
but it's still so. It's phoniness and nothing more. Now, it's true that the Church
of Corinth did have these gifts. They had people who could speak
in other languages. And that's what the gift of tongues
is. It's the ability to speak in other languages. And those
who had this gift evidently were getting up in the services and
started speaking in other languages and speaking in tongues. And
some of them even got up and started praying in another language.
And Paul is rebuking them for this. You know, it's just the tendency
of the flesh. If I've got a gift, I want to
show it off. Now, I won't say it. I'll try to act humble and
act lowly and so on. But if I have a gift, I'm going
to want to show it off. And if I had the gift of tongues,
somehow I'd want you to find out about it. I'd want you to
find out how gifted I am and how blessed I am. And I would
be implying from that I got some kind of special connection with
God that perhaps you don't have. Look at me, I'm somebody, I'm
somebody special. And that's what was going on
at the church of Corinth. And Paul is rebuking them for
their abuse of this gift, as we shall see. But one thought
that's prominent, and I pray that God will drive this into
our hearts. Look at this passage of scripture
in verse 12. Even so, for as much as you're
zealous of spiritual gifts, see that you may excel to the edifying,
the building up of the church. Look in verse 17. For when thou for thou variously
give us thanks well, but the other is not edified, that one
listening to you, he's not receiving any benefit from it. What you're
saying may be great, but that person sitting by you has no
idea what you're saying. He's not being edified. Verse
26, how is it then brethren? When you come together, every
one of you have the psalm, have the doctrine, have the tongue,
have the revelation, have an interpretation. Let all things
be done unto edifying. That word edifying means being
built up, not puffed up with hot air, but truly built up,
growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. I've entitled this message, The Edifying of the Church. Now,
before we look at this passage and before we talk about the
edifying of the church, we first got to ask the question, what's
meant by the church? What is the church? Well, the word church means a
called out assembly, a called out assembly. You see, the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a human institution. We open
this service where our Lord said upon this rock, will I build
my church? And the church is a called out
assembly. It's not a human institution. Now, I realize there are a lot
of religious assemblies that call themselves churches, but
they're not churches in the biblical sense because they don't preach
the truth. What is the standard of whether or not a church is
a church? Do they preach the truth? That's
it. Do they preach the truth? Do
they tell the truth concerning God, concerning Christ, concerning
man, concerning salvation? Paul said in 1 Timothy 3, verse
15, that the church was the pillar and ground of what? The truth. That's what the church is. It's
the pillar and ground of the truth. If a religious institution does
not preach the truth of salvation by grace, of salvation in Christ,
it is not a church. It's quite simply that. It's
a religious institution of some kind, man-made, but it's not
a church. The church is the pillar and
ground of the truth. Christ says, upon this rock,
I will build my church. What is necessary for something
to be a church? You've got to preach the truth. That's simple
enough, isn't it? Now this word church is used
in two different senses in the scripture. First, when the word
is used, it's used the way our Lord used it when he said upon
this rock will I build my church. He was not talking about a local
assembly like this assembly. That's certainly included in
it, but he's talking about the universal church. All of God's
elect. Everybody that Christ died for.
Ephesians 5.25 says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved
the church and gave Himself for it. Acts 20.28, Feed the church
of God which He purchased with His own blood. Hebrews 12.23,
we read of the general assembly and church of the firstborn whose
names are written in heaven. The church is all of God's elect. It's every believer to ever live. I love that hymn. We sing this hymn, hymn number
186. I'm just going to quote a few of the verses. The church's
one foundation is Jesus Christ, her Lord. She is his new creation
by water and the word. From heaven he came and sought
her, to be his holy bride. With his own blood he bought
her, and for her life he died. Elect from every nation, yet
one for all the earth. Her charter of salvation, one
Lord, one faith, one birth, one holy name she blesses, partakes
one holy food and to one hope she presses with every grace
endued. Mid toil and tribulation and
tumult of her war, she waits the consummation of peace forevermore. Till with the vision glorious,
and we just read about that vision in Revelation chapter 5 verse
9, Till with the vision glorious, her longing eyes are blessed,
seeing her husband, seeing her Lord face to face. And the great
church victorious shall be the church at rest. Yet she on earth
hath union with God, the three in one, and mystic, sweet communion
with those whose rest is one. O happy ones and holy, Lord,
give us grace that we, like them, the meek and lonely on high,
will dwell with thee. I love that hymn we just heard
when Carol was singing where she talked about the security
of the believer, more happy, talking about those church members
in glory, more happy, yes, but not more secure than the glorified
saints which are in heaven. All of the elect, that's God's
church. And then secondly, the word is used to refer to the
local church, the church at Galatia, the church at Corinth, the church
at Ephesus, the church at Pergamos, the church at Todd's Road, a
local assembly. Now, the membership of the first
church is pure. The membership of every local
church is always mixed. And our Lord told us it'd be
that way. And we're not supposed to try to pull out the tares
and get a perfect church membership. We're not trying to do that.
We're just preaching the gospel. And the Lord is going to call
out, such as should be saved. And there will also be tares
with the wheat in every local assembly. Now, the church is
called in Scripture, the body of Christ. The bride of Christ. The habitation of God. As we just read from 1 Timothy
3.15, the pillar and ground of the truth, the flock of God. Now, I want to be in his flock,
don't you? I want to be a member of his
flock. There's something very special
about being a true church member, isn't there? Now, he says to the church at
Corinth in chapter 14, verse 12. He says, "...even so ye forasmuch
as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, And I want every gift
there is for me to have, and you do too. I want to be gifted
to preach the gospel. I want to be gifted to give generously
from a willing heart. I want to be given the gift to
love people. I want to be given the gift to
serve people. I want these gifts. I want to be a gifted individual. He said, but you make sure in
seeking these gifts and excelling in these gifts You may excel
to the edifying, to the building up of the church. Now, these
people at Corinth were zealous about showing off their gifts.
Why else would you get up and start speaking in tongues? What
if I started just all of a sudden speaking in tongues? Spanish
or if I started speaking in Portuguese or something like that, and you're
all sitting there, you don't have any idea what I'm saying,
but all I'm doing by that is proving to you I can do it. Look,
I'm a master of languages. Look at the gift I have. That's
the only reason I do that. There wouldn't be any spiritual
benefit in it. I wouldn't be doing it for the
edifying of the church. I'd be doing it for the edifying
of myself, for the building up of myself to make me appear more
gifted. Now that's what was going on.
And I'm not too hard on these people, Igor. I hope I'm not
because I kind of believe that if I was there back then and
I had that gift, I kind of believe I'd be one of the ones standing
up to show it off. I'd show everybody this gift I have and that gift
I have. They had those gifts. And so
I don't want to be too hard on them. As a matter of fact, I
know I would have been a ringleader in this thing, apart from the
grace of God. And Paul is rebuking them over this, this thing of
standing up and showing off. He says, seek to the benefit
of the building up of the church. And every day we ought to ask
the Lord to deliver us from evil, selfish motives and seek his
glory only. Lord, would you rip out my bad
motives? Is there anybody in here without
any bad motives? Good grief. I've got so many
bad motives in everything I do. It's always there. It's always
breathing on my neck. I'm aware of it. I hate it. I
despise myself. And I ask the Lord, Lord, rip
those out. Perform an operation on me and
rip them out by your grace. It'll be a mercy to me. seek
to the edifying, the building up of God's church. So he says in verse 13, Wherefore,
let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret."
What good is speaking in a foreign language if you don't have an
interpreter there to tell what it's saying? Now, if I get up
and speak in a foreign language and there's somebody that can
interpret, tell me what was said, fine. But if there's no interpreter
there, there's no point in it. It serves no purpose. Verse 14.
For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding
is unfruitful. What is it then? I'll pray with
the spirit and I'll pray with the understanding also. I'll
sing with the spirit and I'll sing with the understanding also.
Now, you're getting up and praying in a foreign language, but let
me show you how ridiculous that is. That would be like me getting
up and praying in a foreign language where my spirit praise but my
understanding is unfruitful. I don't have any understanding
of it." Now, he's rebuking them for this. He's not saying you
can get up and pray where your spirit is blessed and your understanding
is unfruitful. That can't happen. Now, zero
in. This is very, very important.
This reminds me of folks who say, well, you can believe in
your heart what you don't believe in your head. No, you can't. The Bible doesn't make that distinction,
separation. You can't believe something in
your heart that you don't understand in your head. You understand
it in your head and you believe in your heart. Let me also say
this. You can't believe something in your head that you really
don't believe in your heart. I've heard people say, well,
they believe the doctrines of grace, but it's just a head knowledge.
Now, wait a minute. They don't really. If it's just a head knowledge,
you don't really believe grace. Not really. You don't really
believe total depravity because if you really did, you'd really
believe salvation by grace. You see this distinction between
the head and the heart. It's the whole man. I believe
with the heart. That means I believe with the
understanding. I believe with the affections. I love what I
believe. feelings. I believe with my will. This
is what I want to believe. With the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. But that's not saying you can
believe in your head what you don't believe in your heart,
or you can believe in your heart what you don't believe in your
head. I've come across folks say, well, they don't believe
in their head, but their heart's right. That's impossible. That's
impossible. And he's talking about the ridiculousness
of this, of getting up and praying And you don't understand what
you're praying. He's saying that is ridiculous. It will not work. The spirit and the understanding
are to go together. He says in verse 15, what is
it then? I'll pray with the spirit. Yes, we pray with the spirit
of God. He enables us to pray. It's a truly spiritual act. And
I pray with the understanding also. I sing with the Spirit. And I tell you what, I want spiritual
songs, don't you? And I want to sing from my heart.
I want to enter into what's being said. When we sing these hymns,
I don't want to just go over the words. These are hymns of
praise to our Lord. When we hear these specials,
I want to hear them sung in the Spirit by the power of the Spirit
of God where I'm able to enter into it and I'm blessed from
it. I'm going to sing with the Spirit and I'm going to sing
with the understanding also. Verse 16, He's presenting this case, else
when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth
the room of the unlearned say amen and thy giving thanks, seeing
he understand is not what you're saying. Let's say you were praying,
leading in public prayer in a foreign language. What if I call on one
of you men to lead up, lead us in prayer, and you got up and
started praying in a foreign language? What good would that do anybody?
That would be foolishness. That's all it would be. It would
be foolishness. There would not be anything spiritual about it.
It would be just somebody trying to show off is all that would
be. How would that person who doesn't understand what you're
saying benefit from what you're saying? The fact of the matter
is they wouldn't at all. Verse 17, For thou barely givest
things well, but the other is not edified. What you said may
have been great, but he didn't receive any benefit from it.
It didn't do him any good. Verse 18, He said, I thank my
God I speak with tongues more than you all. Now Paul, the apostle,
went all over the known world at that time preaching the gospel.
Whatever country he went into, he had the gift of tongues so
he could speak in their native language. It's hard telling how
many different languages he preached the gospel in. And he said to
these people, I'm not downgrading the gift of tongues. I thank
God I speak with tongues in different languages more than you all.
Indeed he did. He was the apostle to the Gentiles. He went to all
these different nations preaching the gospel. But he says in verse
19, yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding
that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand
words in an unknown tongue. Now what language did they speak
at Corinth? They spoke Greek. He spoke Greek. He said, well,
I'm going to stay with the Greek language. And I'd rather say
five words in Greek than 10,000 in Hebrew or Aramaic or some
other language where nobody understands what I'm saying because nobody
benefits from it. Now, he says in verse 20, Brethren,
be not children in understanding. What he's saying is quit acting
like big babies. Quit acting like immature, self-serving
children. Now, remember how he opened up
this epistle, look in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. He says, And I, brethren,
I couldn't speak unto you as unto spiritual, I couldn't even
speak to you as if you were believers, but as unto carnal, even as babes
in Christ. I fed you with milk and not with
meat. For hitherto you're not able to bear it, neither now,
yea, for you're yet carnal. For whereas there's among you
envy and strife and divisions, are you not carnal? and walk
as men." Now he says, quit acting like immature children. And that's
what was going on when they would get up and talk in tongues and
pray in tongues and try to show off what they were doing. He
said, you're acting like big babies trying to show off. You
know the way kids try to show off. Adults do it too. But kids
are a little bit more over the top with it. They're trying to
show what all they got going. And us adults are a little bit
smarter than showing out how obviously vain we are. So we
try to hide it. But he says, don't. Don't be
children in understanding. He says, now, in malice be ye
children. In malice be like children where
you haven't developed these evil tendencies yet. You know, a kid,
there's a certain innocence a kid has. And he's now, are you saying
a kid's not totally depraved? Of course I'm not saying that,
you know that, but they haven't learned the art of deceit the
way they will with years of practice. He says, no, be innocent like
a kid in malice, but in understanding, be men, be grown up, be mature. Verse 21. In the law it's written
with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto
this people, and yet for all that they'll not hear me, saith
the Lord. So here's the purpose of tongues.
Wherefore tongues, verse 22, are for a sign, not to them that
believe, but to them that believe not. But prophesying, preaching,
serveth not them that believe not, but them which believe. There's benefit, there's edification
to the church. Verse 23. Now if therefore the whole church
be come together unto one place, and all speak with tongues, everybody
starts speaking in different languages, and there come in
those that are unlearned or unstable, unbelievers, will they not say,
you're crazy? And would they not have a right
to say that? What if everybody in here was just speaking in
different languages all at the same time? And that goes on.
I've been in services where that went on, where all of a sudden
that scared me to death. I remember in college one time, I went into
a service and everybody started speaking in their languages,
and I was scared to death. I thought, there's going to be
a thunderbolt come down and get me for being in here. I was so
scared, it really troubled me being in there. I mean, everybody
was up just, and it was chaos. It was anarchy. I got out. I
was scared. Boy, I felt the pressure. Yeah, there was a spirit there,
all right. No doubt about it. There was some kind of spirit
there. It scared me to death. I was out the door lickety split.
I thought, I'll never come in that place again. And they would
be well and say, you're mad. You're crazy for doing that.
Verse 24. But if all prophesy, And there come in one that believeth
not, or one is unlearned. He's convinced of all. He's judged
of all. You see, he's hearing the truth. He's hearing the gospel. We meet together, what do we
do? The Gospel is preached. The truth is preached. That's
why we meet together. We rehearse the Gospel over and
over and over again. It's the same old message. Not
old message. It's always new. It's always
fresh. It's always powerful. But it comes in so many different
ways in the Scripture. Old Testament type. New Testament
instruction. We come to hear the Gospel. Somebody
comes in and he hears the Gospel. And he's convinced. He's judged
of all, it says, but of all prophesied that cometh in one the belief
not or one unlearned. He's convinced of all. That means
he's convicted. He becomes convinced that you're
telling the truth. He's judged of all. And thus
are the secrets of his heart made manifest. And so falling
down on his face, he'll worship God and report that God is in
you of a truth. That's what's going to happen
as a result of hearing the truth. Now, how is it then, brethren,
When you come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath
a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let this be the driving force
behind what you're doing. Let all things be done unto edifying. The edifying of the church. That's our purpose. This is something
for you and I to be very ambitious about. The edifying. The building
up, not of self, but the edifying or the building up of the church. Now, how is the church edified
and built up? How is the church increased? What is the edification of the
church? Well, first, it's the members
of the church growing in grace. and in the knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. That is the building up of the
church. It's the maturing of believers. It's believers conducting
themselves in a way that honors the gospel, that honors their
Lord, that honors the gospel they believe. It's the building
up, it's the growing, the maturing of the members. Now, one aspect
of growing, and there are a lot of aspects of growing, is seeking
to excel to the edification of the church, instead of seeking
to excel in the edification of yourself. Actually, I love that
description of Phoebe. She was a servant of the church. May that be said truly of you
and I, where we're true servants one to another. That's growth
and grace. I tell you what, the more you
grow, the more a servant you'll be. every time. What is growth? Well, I like
what he's saying. Look back in verse 20. Brethren, be not children in
understanding, albeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding
be men. Be mature. be grown up. Now, here's what spiritual growth
is. It's growing in understanding, not just growing in knowledge.
Now, I'm all for growing in knowledge. I want to know more. I want to
know the Lord. I want to know His truth. I want
to increase in knowledge, the knowledge of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. But more than growing in knowledge,
I want to grow in understanding. I want to grow in wisdom. I want
to understand the gospel more clearly. I tell you what, I understand
the gospel more than I did ten years ago. I surely do. I hope
I preach the gospel more clearly than I did 10 years ago. And
I hope if the Lord causes me to live another 10 years, 10
years from now, I'll be preaching the gospel a whole lot more clearly
and a whole lot more simply with a lot more understanding and
love than I am now. There's a growth in grace and
there's a growth in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. I grow in understanding of who He is. I tell you what,
the more I understand who He is, the more I rest. The more
I understand the sufficiency of Christ Jesus, the more I rejoice
in Him. The more I understand the freeness
of His grace, the more confidence I have. I want to grow in these. It's a growing in understanding.
I grow in an understanding of myself. You know, I know myself
now better than I've ever known myself. And you know what? I
don't trust myself. I really don't. I don't trust
myself. That's how much I know myself. I know myself enough
to not trust myself. I know that in me that is in
my flesh dwelleth no good thing. I believe that more than I've
ever believed it. And I'll tell you what, I don't even understand
it one-tenth or one-millionth as to how true that really is.
One of these days I will, but not now. But we grow in understanding. We grow in faith. We grow to
trust the Lord Jesus Christ more. We grow in being more gracious
to people. Quit being such hard noses and
being merciful, gracious people. That's growing in grace. Growing
in the fruit of the Spirit. Growing in love, joy, peace,
gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, faith, and so on.
We grow. Don't you want to grow? That's
how the church is edified. The individual members grow in
grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Now, we grow from growing in grace. And how is the church
edified and built up? Well, it grows in people by grace
being added to it. You know, we sang that song this
morning, we long to see thy churches full. And, well, everybody that
God intends to be there is there, I realize that. But I want to
see more people come to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, don't
you? I want to see more people bow the knee to Him. I want to
see more people come to an understanding, a heart love of the Gospel. Now, we have in this passage
of Scripture a man who came into this assembly. Let's look back
in verse 24. But if all prophesy, and there
come in one that believeth not, and one unlearned, and he's convinced
of all, he's judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart
made manifest, and so falling down on his face, he will worship
God and report that God's in you of a truth. Now here this
man comes in. He may simply have wandered in. But in all likelihood, somebody
invited him. That's what he was doing there.
He may have wondered in, I realize that, but somehow he heard. Maybe
he saw one of the members of the Church of Corinth handle
a trial in a way that he knew he'd never handled a trial. And
he was impressed. Perhaps he was treated graciously
and kindly by somebody. And he didn't know what church
they went to. He didn't know what they believed,
but he was impressed, let's say, by the way they conducted themselves.
And he said, well, I want to go check out what it is they're
hearing that makes them that way. And he came to church. That's
what this is. It's coming to church. It truly
is. It's not a building. It's the people of God meeting
together around the gospel. He came to church and God the
Holy Spirit slew him. He was made to see that the secrets
of his heart were revealed to him. He was made to see what
a sinful, evil, helpless person he was. And he was made to, Scripture
says, worship God. He believed the gospel. He says,
God's in you of a truth. I was skeptical, but I said,
this is the truth. This is the gospel. I believe
this. And the scripture says he worshipped
God. He believed himself to be in
God's. You'll only worship the sovereign.
You've never worshipped God unless you've worshipped an absolute
sovereign. You're in His hands, and He's got control over you,
and you have no control over Him. Now, when you come to see
that, you've worshipped. He'll worship God and report
that God is in you of a truth. Now, seek to be. Seek the edifying
of the church. I personally want to seek to
grow in grace. I'll tell you what. Let me say this. If I grow
in grace, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to esteem you
as better than myself. Growth up is always growth down. It always is growth down. I'm not going to be competitive
with you. I'm going to esteem you as better than myself. I'm
going to take the lowest seat in the house if I'm growing in
grace. Now, if I'm growing in Myself,
I'm going to seek to take the highest, most prominent position
and I'm going to seek to be recognized. But if I'm in growing in grace,
I'm going to take the lowest seat in the house and really
believe that's where I belong. I'm not going to do it with mock
humility. You know, it's one thing to, well, I'm going to, I'm going
to be humble and I'm going to take the lowest seat in the house.
It's one thing to practice mock humility and do that. And I don't
think there's anything more offensive than mock humility. But it's
another thing to really take the lowest seat in the house
because you believe that's what you deserve. That's where you
belong. That's where you ought to be. Growth in grace is growing
in humility. It's growing in love. It's growing
in belief, faith. And we're to seek the edification
of the church first in our own personal growth by the grace
of God. And we're to seek the edification, the building up
of the church in being fishers of men. Our Lord said, follow
me and I will make you fishers of men. Everybody in here, every
believer is called upon to be a fisher of men. Now you seek
the edification, the building up of the church, do all things.
Look what he says in verse 26. He said, How is it then, brethren,
when you come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath
a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation? These people practiced these
supernatural gifts at that time. They all had these gifts of the
Spirit. He says, Just make sure this is what's taking place.
Let all things be done unto edifying. Would you turn with me to Mark
chapter 2? I love this story. Mark chapter
2. Verse 1, And again he entered into Capernaum,
and after some days it was noise that he was in the house. And
straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there
was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the
door. And he preached the word unto them. And they came unto
him, bringing one sick of the policy, of the palsy, which was
born of four. Four men brought their friend
who was paralyzed. And when they could not come
nigh unto him to the press, they uncovered the roof where he was. They knocked a hole in the roof. And they let him down. They let
down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. Now look what
the next verse says, When Jesus saw their faith, He said unto the sick of palsy,
Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. He saw their faith. Now what was their faith? They
knew that the only one who could do their friend any good was
the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing else. And they were determined
to get their friend to Him, so they knocked a hole in the roof
to bring that man to the Lord Jesus Christ when He saw their
faith. I pray that God will make us
just like this. These four unnamed men, He saw
their faith. Now you make this your purpose. You think how vain life is. The
only thing that matters is knowing Christ. Life is so vain. It really is, isn't it? Vanity,
vanity, all is vanity, saith the preacher. Life is so vain.
And there's only one reason to live, that's the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. May He enable us to be just like
these four men, to seek to the edifying, the building up of
God's church. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that by your grace you will cause us to grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We ask that you'd
increase our faith and that you'd increase our love to you and
that you would increase our love to one another and that you would
teach us truly to be servants one to another. Lord, we ask
that you'd rip out our vain motives and cause us to seek thy glory
only in the edification of your church. Bless this message for
Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen.