There's a better song than that.
I don't know what it is. I'd love that hymn. Would you turn
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 14? Our subject for this evening is the
edifying of the church. Let's begin reading in verse
12. Even so, ye, forasmuch as you
are 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, if thou giving a thanksing
he understandeth not what thou sayest? For thou 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 ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. Brethren,
be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children,
but in understanding be men. 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.
Wherefore, tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but
to them that believe not. But prophesy, and serveth not
for them that believe not, but for them that 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 the psalm, hath the
doctrine, hath the tongue, hath the revelation, hath the 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 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 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 there
is 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. And 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. Now, 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, verse 28, be the church
of God which he purchased with his own blood. Hebrews 12, verse
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. 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 five, verse nine, 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 lowly,
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 would
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 first Timothy
315, 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 in there. Now he says to the church at
Corinth in chapter 14, verse 12, he says, even so ye for as
much as you 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 in court. 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. And 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
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 somebody has an interpreter, 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 prays, but my
understanding is untrue. 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. The 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 that 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 at thy giving of thanks,
seeing he understandeth not what you're saying? Let's say you
were praying, leading in public prayer in a foreign language.
What if I called on one of you men to 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 thanks 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. Wherever, 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. And 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
are you able, 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. You know, they're
trying to show what all they've got going. And us adults are
a little bit smarter than showing 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. 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 is 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. That's the purpose. 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 become 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. 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 judgeable. 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. Oh, we come to hear the Gospel.
Somebody comes in and hears the Gospel. And he's convinced. He's judged of all it says. That
if all prophesy, there cometh in one that believeth not, or
one that is unlearned, he is 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 the 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 in verse, look back in verse. Twenty, rather than be not understanding,
be not children in understanding, not be it in mouths, be you children,
but in understanding, be men, be mature, be grown up. Now, here's here's what spiritual
growth is. It's growing and 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. And 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 ten years ago. And I hope if the Lord causes
me to live another ten years, ten 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've grown in 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 millionth as to how true that really is. One of these
days I will. 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, or 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 the 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 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. And 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 to 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 have the psalm, have
a doctrine, have the tongue, have the revelation, have an
interpretation. And they all these people practice
these supernatural gifts at that time. They all have 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 two? I love this story. Mark chapter
two. Verse one. And again, he entered into Capernaum
and some after some days it was noise that he was in the house.
And straightway, many were gathered together in so much 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 for 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, and that's the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ. May He enable us to be just like
these four men, to seek to be 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. 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.