Address—C. Hendricks
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Like to talk this afternoon upon building and Christ.
And us as builders.
Don't know if you realize that you're a builder.
We're all building.
The result of Christ's building is we can read a bit in Ephesians 2. I just want to read those verses.
In Ephesians 2, verse 19.
Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners.
But fellow citizens, with the Saints and of the household of God.
And are built.
Upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.
In whom all the building?
Fitly framed together Groweth.
Unto an holy temple in the Lord.
So we're in this building that Christ is.
Erecting here his church.
He said to Peter.
In Matthew 16.
On this rock.
Peter had confessed he was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Lord says on this rock.
I will build my church.
And so here we see the church in building.
Fitly framed together, growing unto an holy temple in the Lord. So the end result of Christ's building is this holy temple.
In the Lord.
But there's another kind of builder here.
In this world.
And that is man viewed.
The builder viewing it as man.
Now let's turn back to Genesis 11. We want to consider just a little bit man as a builder and you get that first mentioned.
Genesis 11 I'll read from verse one, and the whole earth was of one language and of one speech.
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plane in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.
And they said one to another, go to let us make brick.
And burned them throughly. And they had brick for stone.
What Christ builds as the living stone, he builds into his building living stones.
But man doesn't use that. Man uses a different material brick.
It's made of clay. It's made of the clay of the ground.
The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven.
Two orders of man 2 builders. The first builder is Man Man of Clay.
And he builds with a material that is just like himself. The man of clay bills with brick.
Let us make brick and burn them truly, for they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
So what man builds?
Takes its character from himself, the man of clay.
And he builds with brick.
And slime.
The things of this world.
That which is.
Characterized by himself.
And they said go to let us build us a city.
Place where humanity is.
Bunched together the city.
And a tower, there has to be a religion. Man has his religion. Man's a very religious creature and he has to have his religion in his city. So he builds a tower.
Whose top may reach unto heaven.
They had.
And let us make us a name.
In the book of Acts we read of the name. The name.
There's only one name for the Christian.
And that's the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for He shall save his people from their sins.
God hath given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings.
And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God of the Father. But what man builds is characterized by Let us make us a name.
Let us make us a name.
Lastly, be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth, the very thing that they were seeking to avoid.
Is the very thing that happened to them as a result of God's judgment because they left him out of their plans?
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And the Lord came down to see the city in the tower which the children of men builded.
And the Lord said, Behold, the people is 1.
And they have all one language, and this they begin to do, and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do.
Go to let us go down and there confound their language.
That they may not understand one another's speech and so the curse of.
God comes upon them and the confounding of their language.
Up to this time in the history of man, they had one language.
Everyone understood what everyone else said, but from this point on there was confusion.
So the Lord scattered them abroad from fence upon the face of all the earth.
And they left off to build a city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel.
Because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth.
And from fence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
So here you see the first man building. He's a builder.
And the material that he uses is brick.
And slime for mortar, brick instead of stone.
Stone speaks of Christ.
We are all living stones.
In the building that he is building.
But man uses other material. He uses that which comes from himself and is of himself.
And is characterized by his principles. Let us make us a name.
And build us a tower. Oh yes, man has his religion all right.
But the truth of the true God is shut out.
Now we have much to cover, so we won't dwell there long. Let's turn over to Daniel where we will see again.
This.
This building.
Daniel, Chapter 4.
The place was called Babel.
And there God confounded their language.
And in Daniel chapter 4.
We have Daniel faithfully relating to Nebuchadnezzar the meaning of his dream.
And it says verse 28. All this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar at the end of 12 months. God gave him 12 months to repent.
Daniel had said to him in verse 27. Wherefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable unto thee, and break off thy sins by righteousness, and thine iniquities, by showing mercy to the poor, that it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility. But there was no sign of repentance.
And so all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of 12 months, he walked in the palace of the Kingdom of Babylon.
It's striking that.
The Jews who were at the divine center where the Lord had set His name in Jerusalem because of their unfaithfulness to maintain the glory of that name.
They are carried captive to Babylon.
And this book, this prophet Daniel.
Tells us about the children of Israel that were captives in Babylon.
It was probably the greatest city that man has ever built.
And Nebuchadnezzar says the king spake and said, verse 30 is not this great Babylon?
That I have built.
For the House of the Kingdom, by the might of my power.
And for the honor of my Majesty, notice how that all the elements that we saw back there in Genesis 11.
Let us make us a name.
And.
This city, Babylon.
It was gigantic. The walls were 69 feet thick.
300 feet high.
They compass the entire city of Babylon. I don't recall the number.
How long each wall was 4 square?
The Euphrates River ran right down through the center of the city. It was absolutely impregnable. It had not only 69 foot thick walls, but it had a Moat that was the same thickness.
And filled with water.
Virtually.
Impossible to conquer such a city. Greatest city that man has ever built.
And in the middle of that city was a tower. A tower to a God. A false God.
That they had built just like they did back in Genesis 11.
A tower.
A religion.
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City was filled with idolatry.
The worship of false gods.
Israel had gone a ******* after those gods, and so God in governmental dealing let them be carried captive to that city, where they could get their fill of idolatry and all the attendant evils that went with it.
Is not this great Babylon?
That I have built for the House of the Kingdom by the might of my power and the honor of my majesty. Here was a city that had all the elements in it to bring glory to the first man.
And we're living in a day when man's building has never been equaled.
When what man is doing is truly impressive, I think everyone of us were truly impressed.
At that short.
Lived.
War in the Mideast.
At the awesome power military power.
Of the United States.
The awesome weapons that man has devised.
Making the enemy look as nothing.
Man has great boasts today, just like.
Nebuchadnezzar did.
Invincible.
And yet.
In the very next chapter.
Belshazzar the King.
He drank himself drunk.
And it says in the 30th verse.
In that night was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldean, slain. Darius the Mede took the Kingdom. How did the enemy get in?
They diverted the waters of the Euphrates River.
And had they been watching the level of the water through the city, they would have seen it going down, down, down.
Until finally it dried up.
And the enemy walked in under the lead gates into the city, and conquered them in their drunken debauchery.
That was the end of Babylon.
And so the the present Babylon will come to a sudden end as well.
But before we get to that, let's turn over to.
Let's just look at Matthew 16 for a moment.
In Matthew 16. Here again we have.
Christ as the Builder.
Verse 13 When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that? I, the Son of Man?
And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah. So one of the prophets he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Notice how that the the people confessed something of the Lord Jesus, which was short of his person, who he really was.
They compared into John the Baptist or Elijah or Jeremiah the weeping prophet.
Well, one of the other prophets, great men.
But something far short of who he really was. And so he asked his own Whom say he that I am?
And we have this beautiful confession from Peter. Thou art the Christ.
The Son of the living God. In the other gospels Peter just says the Christ of God, but here we have his full confession. And upon this full confession Christ says, I'm going to build my assembly.
Thou art the Christ.
The Son of the living God brings before us the truth of His resurrection, and the assembly is built upon a dead and risen Christ.
He is the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon by Jonah, that was his natural name.
That was his name by nature, the man of clay.
Simon Barchona.
For flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father, which is in heaven. Now the Lord gives gives Simon a new name.
I say unto thee that thou art Peter.
A stone.
A living still.
And he had learned the truth of this new name that the Lord gave him here because he tells us in his first epistle, chapter 2, that we've come to Christ as the living stone. He also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to OfferUp spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
So we're called living stones. And so he gives him this new name. Thou art Peter.
And upon this rock.
He had just confessed Christ.
The truth of this person, he says. I'm that truth, but I am the Christ, the Son of the living God. I will build my church.
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Future yet?
Couldn't be built until he was risen.
That's what you have.
Figured in those words, the Son of the living God, the risen Christ, and the gates of Hades tell her Hades shall not prevail against it.
This building of Christ is truly invincible and impregnable.
Because it is built of him.
But now I want to turn to.
What man is building?
We've been in First Corinthians in our readings, so let's turn back to First Corinthians and start from chapter 3.
First Corinthians, chapter 3.
Verse one.
I'll read this quickly. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal is, even as unto babes in Christ.
I have fed you with milk and not with me, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able, for ye are yet carnal.
But whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are you not carnal?
And walk as men.
Walk as the first man is what he says, for while one saith, I am of Paul.
They were still following men, even gifted men, even spiritual men.
I am of Paul and I am of Apollos.
Are you not carnal?
Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?
But ministers by whom he believed, even as the Lord gave to every man.
They were just servants.
Never to be placed alongside of Oregon compared with the master.
Whom they were serving.
So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth. Notice the figure here is a farmer planting and watering his crop.
And.
It's God that giveth the increase.
And he can go through all that labor, and if God doesn't give the increase and send the rain.
And give the right weather conditions.
All that labor will come to nothing.
And as we minister the gospel to the lost, we have to realize that salvation is of the Lord.
If he doesn't give the increase.
All our efforts will come to nothing.
It's the work of God.
Verse 8 Now he that planteth, and he that watereth are one, one in the service of the Lord.
And every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. Notice the reward is mentioned here as a result of sowing the seed planting.
And then watering that sea.
So the figure is the figure of a farm.
A husbandry.
Verse 9 says, For we are laborers together with God. It ought to read, We are God's fellow laborers.
Laborers together with God sort of gives the idea that we're on the same level as God himself. No, we're his fellow laborers.
We're serving Him and He's working with us, true, but this puts him in his proper place when we read it. We are God's fellow laborers.
And then he says, Ye are God's husbandry. He looks upon the Saints as a cultivated field, a husbandry, a farm, so to speak. And he was sowing the seed with them and watering that seed to produce.
For God, as God gave the increase.
And now he changes the figure.
He says ye are God's husbandry, God's field, God's farm, and then he says ye are God's building.
Now we come to the.
To the part of the passage I want to dwell on a little bit. We're viewed as God's building.
According to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder.
He's not looked at here as a farmer sowing seed anymore, but now he's a builder.
And Paul was the master builder, he says. I've laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon.
But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereon. Here man is the builder. Christians are building your building. I'm building.
What are we building?
Is it going to meet with his approval?
Are we using the kind of material?
In the building.
That is approved of himself.
Or does it take its character from the first man?
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Is it are you building with bricks or are you building with stones?
Are you building with material that takes its character from the second man?
The living stone, or from the first man. It's one or the other.
It's either.
That which?
Speaks of Christ.
For that which?
Speaks of.
Man in his fallen condition.
Paul says I've laid the foundation. We don't have to do that. That's already been laid.
But he says, let's every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
For other foundations can no man lay than that is laid which is Jesus Christ.
Now we were noticing in our readings how that man's wisdom.
The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. Now when man builds everything that he builds takes the character takes its character from.
From the first man.
It has to be that way because.
He can't rise beyond that. The natural man understandeth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them.
But they are spiritually discerned.
And those that are in the flesh cannot please God. They can't build with spiritual material, but Christians can because they're not in the flesh, but they're in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in them. So we who are believers, we have the new, the new life, the new man.
The second man.
The last.
He is our life.
And we have the Spirit of Christ.
Spirit of God.
So that we can build according to God.
And we have the divine instructions.
In the word of God.
And we don't go outside of this book.
To get our wisdom for how we're going to build in his house, in God's house.
And what is the great sin of Christendom?
That in God's house man has built.
Human material, human principles.
Worldly things.
Things which take their character from the man of clay, not the man of stone.
But the man of clay.
Verse 12.
Now if any man build.
Upon this foundation.
Which is Christ that can't be relayed and reestablished.
We're talking about Upon the Christian profession now here.
And man building upon this foundation.
We're not talking about Mohammedan country or a Hindu country or a Buddhist country. We're talking about where Christianity is.
And we're living in a country that has been largely considered to be Christian. I know that there's no such thing as a Christian Nation Today.
But still, we're living in a nation where the Bible.
The word of God.
Has formed the basis for much that has taken place. It's fast being overthrown, sad to say.
So we're building on this foundation. What is that foundation? It's Jesus Christ, and everyone of us is a builder.
You may never have thought of yourself as a builder, but you're building.
You're either building something that is of Christ.
Or something that is of the first man.
If any man build upon this foundation gold.
That would speak of his.
His personal glory.
His deity, the gold.
Upholding and maintaining.
The truth of this person?
Building the gold.
The Silver would speak of the truth of his work redemption.
Building silver.
Not sullying his person.
Not sullying his work.
You know, there's a lot of true Christians, true believers, sad to say.
That have done that.
They have come out with doctrines and teachings.
That sully his glory. Take away some of his excellencies, and the last thing mentions precious stones, His varied glories.
As God and his man.
The eternal Son that's being denied.
Stopped at a bookstore recently and I picked up a book.
By a very famous man in the camp in the Christendom.
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He has a congregation of well over 5000 I believe.
The verse where it speaks of Thou art my son, as have I begotten this day, have I begotten thee. And there he taught.
Repeatedly, in more than one place. It wasn't a slip of the pen.
That the thought of sonship connects strictly with time.
He wasn't the Son in eternity past, He was God. Yes, he allowed that. Thank God for that, but not the Son. He didn't become Son until he became a man. That was his teaching.
That's a lie.
That's false.
Scripture says though he were Son, that's his essential glory, what he always was.
Yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
He said the Father, glorify thou me with the the thine own self, with the glory that I had with thee before the world was.
It was the son addressing the father.
He was in that glory with the Father as Son.
From all eternity.
To deny that is not to build with gold.
But to build with something that is very tarnished.
And then there are those that say he didn't sin, but he could have.
And that denies the true humanity.
Of the Lord Jesus.
He didn't. He couldn't sin, not just because he was God, but because he partook of holy humanity.
And what is holiness? Its abhorrence of evil and delight in what is good?
Humanity has been in three different conditions, innocent in the Garden of Eden before the fall, fallen humanity which we all partake of, and holy humanity.
Which we partake of now in Christ, and which of course, was His.
Humanity, that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. So when he came into this world, he carried his sonship into this world. It's one of the things he did not lay aside.
Says in Philippians 2 he emptied himself, but what did he empty himself of? Not of his sonship.
Not of his love, not of his grace, not of his mercy, not of his truth and righteousness and holiness.
But of the outward form of glory that he had with God.
He emptied himself of that by taking upon him the form of a servant, and then he died.
Shed his precious blood. This same writer that I was referring to that denied the eternal sonship also said these startling words.
The blood that flowed in Jesus veins has no more power to cleanse from sin than the flood that flows in mind.
One hesitates to even repeat such blasphemies.
That's not silver.
What are you building?
Precious stones.
All the very glories of Christ.
But then we have three other things mentioned that man builds with.
Materials. Wood.
That speaks of.
The first man.
Hey, and then finally stubble that worthless stuff that's good for nothing.
Stubble.
This is the material that that man builds, and being a Christian does not guarantee that you're not going to use man's material because we all have the flesh.
The unsaved can only build with material that is.
Of the first man.
But the Christian can build with.
Material, that is of the Newman or of the old man, one of the others, because we have both.
And what have we seen today? What has developed? Well, we'll come to those verses.
Notice what he says in verse 13. Every man's work shall be made manifest.
As the day coming.
When all that we have done in the in this building will be made manifest for the day, the day of manifestation shall declare it, because it that day shall be revealed by fire.
The fire of God's holiness.
And the fire shall try every man's work.
Not of how much it is, but of what sort it is.
The quality of the work will tell them and what we have built. Oh, I'd much rather be identified with a little feeble company, the twos and threes gathered to the Lord's name and have his approbation in that day, then be identified with thousands.
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But not have the gold and the silver in the precious stone.
Any man's work abide.
Goes through the test of the fire, Meets with God's approval.
Which he hath built. Thereupon he shall receive a reward.
It says back in.
Verse 8 He that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour. That's more the reward for an evangelist, I would think, but here it's the one building in the house.
And there's been so much built.
We're at the end of the day of grace.
And we see around us everywhere the results of man's building.
Man's building, most of it is worthless. Most of it is going to be burned up by the fire.
But what does he say in verse 15?
In verse 14, if the man's work abide which he hath built, thereupon he shall receive a reward. There'll be rewards given to those who are the Lord's and have built.
For His glory.
But then there are those who are the Lords but have used the fleshly material and fleshly ideas and are pressing things which take their character from the first man. And they can do that because they have the flesh. We have the flesh, we can do that.
Any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, he loses his reward, which he would have had he built according to God.
But he himself shall be saved. So there's a saved man yet so as not by the fire. He's not saved by the fire, he's saved through the fire.
The fire can't touch him because he's under the blood of Christ.
But the fire can destroy his works, and that it does.
What are you building?
We've been very concerned, also burdened.
Of what the enemy is bringing in.
These last moments.
Are these new principles?
These new.
Interpretations that are being placed upon the Word of God.
Are they right?
Have those that have builded before us whom we esteem so highly.
Have they been deceived?
We thought.
I thought.
I think just about everyone here has thought they were building with gold and silver and precious stones.
And the truth has been recovered to us.
But now we're hearing another sound.
A different slant, a different interpretation placed upon well known passages of Scripture.
Is it the sound of the shepherd's voice?
Or is it a strange sound?
Is it gold and silver and precious stones that is being presented to us today, or is it wood, hay and stubble?
It's one of the other.
It's either truth or error, can't be both.
How serious?
How serious this is.
Oh, how serious.
It's going to all be tested by the fire.
And there are those that are saved and they'll they'll come through the fire, but they won't have any works.
They're going to be burned up.
They've been deceived.
Any man's work should be burned. He shall suffer loss.
But he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God? He's talking to the Saints at Corinth and he says you are the temple of God locally.
God's Temple. Representatively, they were God's temple, where God himself dwells by the Spirit.
And that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you, among you, viewed collectively, corporately in the 6th chapter.
He says that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Ghost. That's individual, but here it's collective.
The Saints locally.
The temple of God, The Spirit of God dwelling among us.
In US.
And then he talks about a third kind of builder in verse 17. This man's not real. He's not a saved man at all, though he professes to be, if any man defile the temple of God.
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Him shall God destroy.
Now that word in the Greek defile and destroy same word.
Many men destroy the temple of God by defiling it by corrupting its true character.
Him shall God destroy.
For the temple of God is holy. Which temple are ye?
Temple of God is holy, and here comes one end that introduces doctrine and teaching and practices which destroy the true character of the temple of God. Think of this this last vote by a large denominational body in Christendom admitting.
Perverts.
To the ministry.
They've destroyed the temple of God.
Destroyed its character of holiness.
By what they have decided to allow.
In that denomination. And then he goes on to say, Let no man deceive himself.
If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world.
Let him become a fool that he may be wise. We have to be ready to give up our human wisdom.
That which we have gotten from the teachings of.
This world.
And not use that.
In building the assembly.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
For it is written, he taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
And again the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise.
That they are vain.
Therefore, let no man glory in men. Oh how these Saints at Corinth needed this ministry, because they were giving place to the first man.
For all things are yours.
Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world, or life or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours and you are Christ's.
Christ is God's.
We're builders.
What are we putting our seal of approval upon? Is it material? Are they principles of truth from God's Word? Or are they misapplications of the Word of God, misinterpretations and doctrines built upon this which swamp the truth of God?
Take it right out from underneath us. Are we going to allow that to happen?
This is serious business.
It's not something that we can take lightly. Let us be alert and alive as to what is happening.
Don't allow the truth to be taken from you.
Hold fast that which thou hast.
That no man takes thy crown.
It's necessary to speak plainly.
In light of what is happening.
Let's turn to Second Timothy, chapter 2.
For a few verses here we see the result.
The result of man's building.
Man's building, his materials.
And some of the materials are.
Of God.
Verse 19 Second Timothy 2 Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure.
Having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his.
And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ.
Depart from iniquity.
This is a 2 sided seal. The 1St is that the Lord knows them that are his.
We can't tell.
Just who is the Lord's and who is not? There is such confusion. It's become a Babble over Second Timothy is imprinted the word Babylon.
Confusion.
Very difficult to find one's way.
This know also than in the last days difficult time shall come.
We're in those days.
Let everyone that name it the name of Christ or Lord, it should be depart from iniquity. That's our responsibility. That's my responsibility not to look around and see that Brother John is in this or that.
Thing which I see to be evil or?
Going on with iniquity, unrighteousness, that's what it means. That which is not right.
I have to judge it by the word of God.
And that's been done.
And some have separated from what has been built of man in this great house, this confusion of things at great cost to themselves.
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Great cost to themselves. Verse 20 in a great house in the first epistle of Timothy, he calls it the House of God because it was more or less in order then, but now it's called the great house.
Because it's in disorder.
In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver. That speaks of what is real and genuine and for the glory of God.
But also of wood and of earth.
And that's not going to stand the test of the fire. And some to honor and some to dishonor.
Now he's already said the Lord knows them that are his, and we don't know who they are.
There are some that I really thought were the Lord's, really thought were the Lord's.
10 years ago.
Today, the way they're going on.
And what they've given up.
I can't say they're the Lords.
You see, we don't know.
You can't look into my heart and I can't look into your heart.
But God can, and He's the only one that can.
And he knows the heart. All things are naked and opened under the eyes of him with whom we have to do. You can even fool yourself into thinking that you're a real Christian, a real believer.
And you may not be.
Though we do have that verse in Romans 8 that says the Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God. And if we're going on in any measure with the Lord, we'll have that witness to us and we'll know that we're His.
I trust you all know that.
But what does it say here?
Some to honor and some to dishonor.
One who is to dishonor. It's not a question of I have to perceive whether he's truly saved or not, but how's he walking?
Is he going on with evil unjudged? Then he's a vessel to dishonor. The question. Whether he's saved or not doesn't even enter into it.
God knows them that are his.
But will to depart from iniquity and if I see a one who professes to be a real believer going on with iniquity, I have to separate from that iniquity.
I'm not separating from the believer so much as from the iniquity that he's connected with, and he refuses to separate from it.
I believe that's the clear principle here. Verse 21 Says if a man therefore purge himself from these, that's individual responsibility to separate from the vessels, to dishonor those that are going on with what is clearly contrary to the scriptures and they don't intend to change.
What is our resource in such a case?
If a man therefore purge himself from these.
These vessels to dishonor.
He shall be a vessel unto honor. So separation is necessary in order to become a vessel to honor in a day of confusion such as we have in the great house.
And suppose you have done that.
And suppose another has done that. And suppose I've done that.
We then could walk together in happy fellowship.
And separation from evil.
That's the picture that we have here.
The man therefore purge himself from these. He should be a vessel unto honor, sanctified.
Separated from the evil and meet for the master's use.
Suitable to to the master to use.
Because he's a clean vessel now, and prepared unto every good work.
Flee youthful lusts.
But follow righteousness.
Faith, charity or love?
Peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
I believe those that are here described as calling on the Lord out of a pure heart are those in the midst of this confusion, this battle of confusion that is in the great house. And the great house is called all of Christian profession and we're in it just like everyone else. We don't separate from the great house.
But we separate in the great house from vessels to dishonor.
And then become a vessel to honor, and with others that have done the same, they call on the Lord. Out of a pure heart we follow righteousness.
First thing, righteousness, doing the right thing when so many are doing the wrong thing.
Faith bringing God in, connecting my.
Action with God Himself in faith.
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Love, love to all the Saints. How is it shown? By walking in the truth.
And then the result is peace.
That's God's formula.
In the last days.
For a collective.
And it's obtained by individual exercise, separating from iniquity and then following on with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Now let's turn to Revelation 17.
In Revelation 17, we have the.
The end result?
Of man's building.
It's this great house.
Is referred to here.
We have.
The false church.
The result of man's building and.
What the enemy has done.
Let's read it.
Revelation 17 And there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come, hit her.
I will show unto thee the judgment of the great *****.
That sitteth upon many waters. This is the false church now.
He who professes to be the bride of Christ, but she's called by the Spirit of God a great *****.
With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
She hasn't maintained a path of separation from the world. She's done just what Israel did. She was to be Israel, was to be a testimony to the true God in the midst of the idolatry of the heathen roundabout. And she intermingled with them, she intermarried with them, and she was then carried as a judgment from God captive to Babylon.
2 tribes.
And so here we have the false church. So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness.
And I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast. The woman in scripture pictures the church, whether the true one or the false one. Here it's the false church.
Full of names of blasphemy, having 7 heads and 10 horns, and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.
Oh, these are the these are the ornaments of this world system Here. It's not what we're looking at, the typical significance of what we're looking at in First Corinthians 3, but here it's what characterizes the wealth and riches of this world.
The church has so fallen that she is embellished.
With all that the world confers upon her.
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. I picture the woman standing there holding that cup out. As the inhabitants of the earth look at it, they see a golden cup. Isn't that beautiful? But as heaven looks down and sees what's in that cup.
It's full of filthiness.
And fornication.
Abominations.
Idolatry, every kind of wickedness has been practiced in the false church.
And what is the word to her?
Well, I'll read it in verse 4 of chapter 18. If we can just go there for a moment. I heard another voice from heaven saying come out of her, my people. Is it possible that he has his people and there's still some of them at least are in that system that is so hateful to God?
He calls them out. He says, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Reward her even as she rewarded you and double under her double according to her works.
In the cup which she hath filled, filled through her double, how much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously. So much torment and sorrow giver. For she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death and mourning and famine, And she shall be utterly burned with fire. For strong is the Lord God.
Who judges her?
And now we hear the lament of earth. The kings of the earth who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, Babylon, that mighty city. For in one hour is thy judgment come. That's the way it was with the Babylon of the Old Testament in one hour.
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Her judgment came, and so it will be with the false church.
But let's go back to 17. Five. And upon her forehead was a name written Mystery Babylon the Great.
The mother of harlots and abominations of the Earth.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great, not admiration. There was nothing to admire in this wicked woman, but he wondered with great wonder.
He marveled how could something that began so wonderfully and was so pure.
And was true to Christ.
In those first years, how could it?
Turn out this way.
The the reason is man has built his material.
This is all the result of man's building. It's good to see the end of what we're doing. It's good to see the end of what is being introduced. Where will it end?
We are all suffering from myopia. We only see a very short distance ahead.
Where will it end?
If this continues to be allowed.
We're builders.
And this is the.
Of man's building.
It meets with the unmitigated judgment of God.
And once that judgment has been executed.
And I don't have time to read it all, time is running out.
We'll get the the response of heaven chapter 18 verse 20 we saw the response of the earth of the kings of the earth that they lamented, but now we have rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets, for God hath avenged you on her.
And a mighty Angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall this great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. You can read it.
Yourself.
The judgment.
Of man's building.
But before we close this message, let's look at.
The results of Christ's building.
Revelation 21.
And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come, hit her, I will shell thee the bride.
The Lamb's.
He carried me away in the Spirit through a great and high mountain. You remember in the 17th chapter when he showed the seer, the harlot, he took him into the wilderness and and he viewed the the false church from this vantage point of the wilderness. Nothing for God there, just a dry, barren waste wilderness.
That's the false church. That's the result of man's building.
And here you have the result of what Christ has built.
He showed me that great city, that that holy city.
The Holy Jerusalem.
Descending out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God.
And her light was like unto a stone most precious.
Even like a Jasper stone clears.