Address—C. Hendricks
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Last night we we had we looked at the characteristics of Christianity versus those of Judaism, which is called in Hebrews the camp. And we were told in Hebrews 1313 to go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach in order to know how to answer to that.
We have to know what the camp is. Well, in Hebrews, the camp is Judaism.
But as we were noticing last night, and we will continue the subject tonight, Lord Willie, there are many things that look like the camp, not like Christian truth in Christendom today.
There are many wonderful truths that are held by most Christians, certainly the incarnation, that coming into the world of the Son of God. You get that in John's Gospel chapter 1 and verse 14. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glorious of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Brings before us find glory as the eternal Son, the Word and also as come become flesh coming into this world and then we have his perfect life that is mentioned. You get that characterized it in the 6th chapter of John verse 57 as the living Father hath sent me.
And I live by, by reason of, on account of the father.
So he that eateth me, even He shall live by me. It is a wonderful statement defining, expressing that He lived down here for the Father's glory. He lived on account of the Father, by reason of the Father. And again he says it in the 8th chapter and verse 29. And he that sent me is with me.
The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always.
Those things that please him.
Well, most Christians speak much of these two wonderful truths. The Incarnation, the great celebration in December 25th of his birth coming into the world. And then most Christians know a good deal about his life. The Gospels are read in their services quite often.
And then if you go to the 12TH chapter, we have his prediction of his death.
Verse 23 Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has come that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
So it's the fruit that was produced from his death is the great subject of the epistles.
And the fact that he went into death and rose again the third day.
In the 13th chapter.
Verse 31.
Therefore, when Judas was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified?
Clarified in a path of perfect obedience to his Father, leading all the way to the cross.
And God is glorified in him at the cross. He was there is our Cinderella. And God was glorified as to the whole sin question.
And then he goes on to say.
God shall also if God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him.
And so we have the path of the Lord Jesus, his coming into the world Incarnate, his perfect life lived for the Father's glory, and always pleasing the Father and everything he did, and then going into death in order that there there might be much fruit, souls might be saved and and brought him to blessing. And one day he will, as we saw in Hebrews.
Chapter 1. He will present us to the Father. Behold I and the children which thou hast given me.
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Here he speaks of glorifying God as to the whole question of sin, and then God answering that work by glorifying Him immediately.
The 13th chapter, we pretty much came up to that in what we had before us last night.
Brings before us the Lord Jesus. He lays aside his garments in verse 4.
Of chapter 13 and takes the towel and girds himself, that is, he assumes the posture of a servant.
Once again He is serving us now in a different way. He was a perfect servant here below. He lived His perfect life for the glory of God, for the glory of the Father, and He accomplished it at the cross. He paid the supreme penalty for our sins and glorified God as to the whole question of sin.
But his work is still going on. It's in a different character when he ascended up on high.
He led captivity captive. He gave gifts to men. All the power of Satan was vanquished. He went into the stronghold of Satan's power in death, came out victorious in resurrection, and then God raised and exalted him to his own right hand. And there he is tonight. Now, most Christians know a lot about his birth.
A lot about his life and his death, but not so much.
About the resurrection, some of it of course, but his ascension, his present session at the right hand of God and and that the result of his entering the glory. We read that verse to start with last night.
That the Spirit of God was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. It required a man in the glory before he could send down the Holy Spirit.
And in this 13th chapter we have the Lord going through this washing ceremony with the disciples. It says he took a towel, he girds himself and he pours water, verse 5 into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet.
And to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. Peter objects to this and he says, dust, I'll wash my feet. Jesus said, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. The significance of the feet washing is as we go through this scene, we are his now, his people. As we go through this scene, we pick up.
The defilement of this scene gets on our feet and our feet need to be washed.
We go through this scene in those days they just had these sandals and their feet got dirty and so on. And so the Lord, he washes their feet. And Peter felt that that was improper for him to be at his feet and wash his feet. And the Lord says, if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
Then Peter goes to the other extreme. He says, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Well, what is the significance of this? This is what he's doing right now at the right hand of God. It says in.
Verse 3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he was come from God, that's the incarnation, and went to God. He rises from supper and lays aside his garments. So the significance of the feet washing.
Is what he's doing now. I know he carried it out literally on earth, but it was significant of what would happen after he had ascended to heaven. He's washing our feet. He washes our feet every time we're under the sound of the word of God. Every time we read it in our private reading or in a reading with others or with the family, He washes the disciples feet.
He wants you, me, us to have part with him.
Where he is in that heavenly scene above. Now this is what characterizes.
Christianity, Christ, a man in the glory of God, something that never existed before, man in the glory of God, Man in the very presence of God himself ascending up there. He, he wears that is a beautiful expression in one of our hymns that says he wears our nature on the throne. He's carried our nature. He's a human nature, humanity into the very presence of God.
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Hebrews one and two says that.
He was made a little lower than the angels that was in his incarnation, and then when he ascended up, he went above the angels.
And that's where he is now made higher than the angels, it says, exalted above all things, a man in that highest place of glory. And from that heavenly vantage point, he is washing our feet spiritually. He says, What I do thou knowest not now that thou shalt know hereafter. So that's what he's been doing.
And most Christians are very, very ignorant of this line of truth.
That.
Just washing our feet. He's using the word of God to cleanse us so that we might have part with him. We pick up habits, ways.
Attitudes of this world as we pass through it, and we need to have these things removed by the Lord Himself as He washes our feet with the Word of God. The washing of water by the Word in the 14th chapter.
We're not going to go into all this in great detail.
Sort of give an outline here.
In the 14th chapter, At the end of the 13th chapter, he told them that.
He was going away.
And Peter in verse 36, Simon Peter said to him, Lord, whither goest thou?
Jesus answered him, Whither I go, Thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. And then the Lord tells him that he would deny him thrice. Then in the 14th chapter he continues this, and he says, Let not your heart be troubled. Our hearts were troubled because he had said, I'm going to the Father, I'm going back to.
Father, I am going to leave you, but I am not going to leave you.
Comfortless. And so he unfolds the wonderful truth of sending down the Holy Spirit.
During his absence here, but before that, he tells about what he's.
Going to do when he enters the glory. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
We have never seen God, you and I, and we have never seen him either. His disciples saw him as a man down here, you and I haven't. You know we love him whom having not seen, Peter says we love.
And so he says, I'm going away and you won't see me anymore, but you can believe in me as you believe in God. In my father's house are many mansions. Now in the 2nd chapter of John, the Father's house was that temple that the Lord cast those money changers out of and said, make not my father's house a House of merchandise.
Here the Father's house is on high. It's in heaven. It's the place into which he has gone.
And as soon as that man entered that scene in in in heaven, the house was prepared for us. He could have come back immediately and taken his own home. Spend nearly 2000 years now and he's still carrying. In my father's house are many mansions, many abodes, many abiding places. If it were not so, I would have told you I'd go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for, you know, this is a heavenly place.
He's gone into a heavenly position. The church is a heavenly people and we have a heavenly calling. And it's this truth, our association with the man and the glory, the man in heaven, the man who has gone there. This is what characterizes Christianity, and the sad failure of the Christian world has been that it has made of Christianity and earthly religion.
And improvement upon an advance upon Judaism.
And you hear it said commonly the judeo-christian tradition, as though Christianity is an extension of Judaism and improvement of Judaism and advance upon it. Not nothing of the kind. It is altogether new and distinct and different. If you read through the Epistle to the Hebrews, which you are reading through now, you will find comparisons, but most of those comparisons are contrasts.
Contrasts, not similarities.
But contrasts, for instance, the Lord died and there were many animals that died in the Old Testament. All of them, none of them are, all of them put together couldn't put away our sins, but his one death did. And you can go on and on. They had priests in the Old Testament. They stood daily ministering off in the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, having offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting.
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Enemies be made the footstool of his feet, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. That's the truth of Christianity. It's a comparison, and yet it's a contrast. It's a contrast. The priests of the ironic line died. They had to be replaced by another because they died. But this man, because he continued whatever happened, unchangeable priesthood, and he's risen in the power.
Endless life. So we have comparisons but contrasts and that whole epistle and what we have in this wonderful gospel of John, the, I like to call it the Christian Gospel, is the wonderful truth, truth of Christianity in contrast with Judaism. They had an earthly house, they had an earthly temple, his body which went into death and which he said I would raise up again.
Has replaced that.
And now he has prepared on high a house in the Father's presence. In my father's house are many mansions. For were not so I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And then this wonderful promise, if I go and prepare a place for you on high in heaven, I will come again.
And receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
When the early brethren used to greet one another, they would greet one another with perhaps today, perhaps today they had the the coming of the Lord much before them. Now all Christians believe the Lord is going to come again, but many do not understand nor believe in the the heavenly hope of the believer, the rapture where he will come before He establishes the Kingdom in power and glory to take us, a heavenly people out of.
World of be with himself, so then when he comes back from heaven, he will bring us with him and we will share in that victory.
In the mean time, he's gone on high to prepare a place with the promise that he will come again.
And receive us to himself, that where I am, where you may be also.
And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know, Thomas says, We don't know, we know not where thou goest. How can we know the way? And then in that sixth verse, which we know so well, one of the most stupendous statements ever made.
In the in the history of this world.
The Lord says I am the way, the truth and the life.
If he was not all that he said he was, he was a blasphemer. He would be a false prophet and misrepresentation of truth. No, but he was everything that he said.
The way and one of the reasons that the world cannot tolerate Christianity.
And the reason, as we mentioned last night, how Christians are being persecuted so, so awfully right now in many parts of this world.
And this country, the whole attitude of this country, which has been known for years as a Christian nation.
Is turning against Christians?
There is no such thing in this present dispensation as a Christian nation. There are Christians in every nation of the world, but there's no such thing as a Christian nation where everyone is a Christian. Far from it.
Christianity is exclusive to the final degree.
I am the way.
The truth and the life.
Here's that statement. No man, no man, woman, child, boy, girl cometh to the father, but by me.
That excludes everyone else, all the other religious leaders of these.
False religions. They could make no such statements.
This man the Lord Jesus those that would when I I was raised in Wilmette and they had a a by high temple in will met. It's a nine sided structure, each one of those of pillars that formed the temple supposed to represent one of the 9 religions in the world.
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And of course, Christianity was one of them. Judaism was another. Islam was another.
Hinduism another and Buddhism another and I don't remember all of them but there were 9.
And they were all put pretty much side by side. Know what makes Christianity so unpalatable to the world?
To someone that has not been born again, that has not experienced the new birth, that has not passed from death to life.
Is that you Christians think you're the only ones that are right?
The truth is, we know where the only ones that are right.
And that is not an acceptable statement nowadays, but it's the truth.
We know him who is the truth?
And it was all these claims that the Lord Jesus made that stirred up the enmity of the religious leaders of the Jews.
What he says is blasphemy, they said. And had he not been?
All that he claimed to be, it would have been, and they would have been absolutely right in crucifying him if he was not.
All that he said he was.
We don't know the way.
He says I am the way. I don't know French but I understand when I drive in Quebec.
That the French word for Rd. is the same word used for here for the way he's the road, he's the way the road, and you're not on that road, you're not going to make it.
I am the way, the truth in this gospel. A little bit farther down he says to Pilate, for this cause came I into the world to bear witness to the truth. And then Pilate says, what is truth?
What is truth? He was not used to dealing in truth. He was a politician. I don't believe in absolute truth. Everything to them is negotiable. Everything can be compromised about. And here he was speaking to the one who was the truth, the absolute expression of who God is.
And what is right and what is wrong? He is the moral governor of the universe. He tells us what's wrong. He tells us what's right, what is not acceptable, and what is acceptable. He sets the standards.
And no one else.
And he is the life. And if you don't have him and you don't know him, you can have all the religion in the world that can, you can go to church every day in the week. And if you don't know him, if you haven't experienced the new birth.
And haven't received the Spirit of God and Christ is your savior. Your lost. You're just a religious lost person, but there's a lot of them today.
The life we need life. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly, he said in John 10.
So Thomas says we don't know where you're going, and he gives this wonderful statement.
Now a little farther down.
He says in verse 15, If you love me, keep my commandments.
And I will pray the Father and He shall give you another comforter. He was their comforter. He was the one that the word means one who stands alongside to help your advocate.
I will give you another comforter. I'm going away and you're going to be left here alone. But you're not going to be alone because I'm going to send this other comforter that he may abide with you forever. He was only there with them publicly for 3 1/2 years, 33 years in his total life here as a man that he says this other comforter, the Spirit of God will never leave you.
Miah, he may abide with you forever. Now these two truths, these two truths.
A man in the glory and a divine person on earth characterized this present day in which we're living. And it's the. It's the.
Unintelligence as to these truths and what they really mean that has caused the false expression of Christianity on the part of most Christians. They do not understand that Christianity is not a worldly religion.
Christianity is.
Began after the world had cast out and murdered the Son of God and cried, We will not have this man to reign over us. And they sent him to heaven with that message. God accepted him. God received him. Their sin put him on the cross. God's righteousness exalted him to the highest place in heaven.
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You get that in the 16th chapter. I'll just turn to it as I think of it now.
He speaks about in verse 7. He says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go away. It's absolutely necessary that I go away, or if I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment. Mr. Darby's translation reads that when he has come, he will bring demonstration to the world of sin, and of righteousness and judgment.
Of sin because they believe not on me. The sin of the world was to reject Christ, not believe in Him.
Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more. Man's sin put him on a cross. God's righteousness raised him from the dead and exalted him to heaven.
Christ in glory is the expression of God's righteousness. God's righteousness set him there. And then he goes on to say of judgment, because the Prince of this world is judged. The Prince of this world LED those, those men to crucify Christ and he is going to be judged. The whole world is judged. We are going through a judged world.
When someone is under law.
This was this was Judaism. He was given a perfect moral code of what to do, how to live towards God and towards man. The Lord summed it up in two things. He said Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength.
And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
That's the summation of the 10 commandments by the Lord Himself.
Well, man does not love God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength, nor does he love his neighbor as himself. So on that ground he is condemned. He has broken the law.
And he comes under the condemnation of and the curse of a broken law.
This world is judged. It's a judged seen. It has failed to live up to the perfect moral code that was given to it, given to the Jews at any rate, and they ended up by crucifying the Lord of glory.
He says, I have many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now, but when he, the spirit of truth has come.
He will guide you into all truth. Where should we find truth in this world? Well, among Christians, in the assembly, where the Lord is, where the Spirit of God dwells, the Spirit of truth, He's come.
When He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, he will guide you into all the truth. For He shall not speak of himself or from himself as a source, but whatsoever he shall hear, he shall speak.
And he will show you things to come.
He shall glorify me now. God the Father has glorified His Son by exalting Him to the highest place in heaven.
And that's where he is in this present day of grace. He's been there for nearly 2000 years now.
And the Spirit of God has been sent down to glorify the Son down here in this world, and he's been given to you and to me, given to us to dwell in us, never to be taken from us.
And to lead us into all the truth and to glorify that Blessed One.
He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath in mind, therefore said I, that He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. Now think of that stake. I just pause. We just meditate upon it for a moment. All things that the Father hath are mine.
Is there any question what he's claiming here? He's claiming to be equal with the father.
All things that the Father hath are mine.
Therefore, said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. So here we have the Blessed Trinity in view, here the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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In the 17th chapter we have the Lord's Prayer to the Father.
And.
You remember in the 10th chapter he said I'm come. That they might have life and that they might have it abundantly. The Old Testament Saints had life, but they did not have the abundant life. We were talking about this a little after the meeting last night. What is the difference between the life that the Old Testament Saints had and what we have? Essentially, it's the same life, but we have it in the conditions of resurrection.
All sins gone through his death and shed blooding on the cross and association with him now is the glorified one in heaven. It's a heavenly light and he says in verse 3 this is life eternal that they might know be he's addressing the Father. He says that they might know thee the Father the only true God and Jesus Christ did not sin. Now the Old Testament Saints did not know the Father.
Nor the Son in the sense in which we do.
When they were born again, they had new life, the same life that we get when we were born again, but we have it now in the full knowledge of God's revelation of Himself in the person of His Son. Someone might ask, what's the difference between new birth and eternal life? I think the best way to understand it is it would be wrong to say that the Lord Jesus had to be born again.
Blasphemy.
And yet He is that eternal life that was with the Father and was manifested unto us. He was always that. He never had to be born again, because that life that was always His was from eternity past. But you and I need to be born again because we need that life imputed, imparted to us.
And what constitutes it is the knowledge of the Father and the Son.
That's truth that wasn't known in the Old Testament the abundant life. The Old Testament Saints didn't know their sins were forgiven.
John says these things. Write unto you little children, that ye may know that your sins are forgiving you for his namesake. That's our starting point, Forgiveness of sins and justification from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses.
What in advance, what an advance upon what they had in the Old Testament, and this is what is called eternal life. Verse four. He says, I have glorified thee.
On the earth. Tremendous statement.
I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do.
And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with thy own self.
With the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
He was in that glory with the Father as the eternal Son. And now he has become a man. And as a man he addresses him as Father. And he asked that he be glorified in the in that same glory that he had with the Father before he became Incarnate. Now he be glorified there as a man and he's he's a man in the glory.
And that's what he's that's where he is.
And from that vantage point, he is bringing us through this wilderness scene.
2 Grand truths that characterize Christianity A man in the glory and a divine person on earth. Now let's turn to the book of Acts.
And chapter 1.
We have the first of those two in Chapter 1.
Verse 9.
Now let me read verse 8. But ye shall receive power.
After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem.
And in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
And when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up.
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And a cloud received him out of their sight.
And while they look steadfastly toward heaven as he went up.
Behold, 2 men stood by them in white apparel, evidently angels.
Which also said, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.
Well, when he returns in that way, he will, well, let's read the next verse, then return they to Jerusalem from the Mount Vollebs called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. He is going to come back. And it says in the prophet Zechariah, his two feet are going to stand on the Mount of Olives. He's going to return to this world from which he here left.
Coming back. This is not the Rapture, this is his return to Earth.
And the Rapture will come before that.
But He's in the glory now. I saw him go up, and this is the first condition that had to be met before the Spirit of God could be sent down. Now in the 2nd chapter of Acts, when the day of Pentecost verse one was fully come, they were all with 1 accord in one place, and suddenly there came a sound from heaven.
As of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
The first evidence of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and that's what we have here, was to fill the house, I think the house being a picture of the assembly, the House of God, where the Spirit of God dwells. And He filled the house where they were sitting, and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them. I think the the cloven tongues are symbolical to the fact that this new order of.
That was coming in now based upon Christ's death and resurrection and ascension to heaven.
And the coming of the Holy Spirit was not to be limited to 1 nation, like the law was given just to Israel. It wasn't given to the Gentiles, but it's for every tongue and people and nation upon the face of the earth. And so these tongues were given to show that it's for all peoples, all languages.
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.
And began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now I'm going to Passover what comes in between here and read towards the end.
Verse 29 Men and brethren, Peter says, Let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchers with us under this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of the loins of his loins.
According to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He's seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell or Hades. It should read neither. His flesh did see corruption, that is, his soul was not left in the disembodied state.
He was going to be raised. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Not only do we have the resurrection in verse 32, but we have His ascension in verse 33. Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear.
This is one of the most important days in the history of the entire world is when the Spirit of God, when Christ ascended and sat down at the right hand of God and received the Spirit a second time. The first time was when He was here on earth at the Water River Jordan.
And the Spirit of God came upon him as a dove. Now he's glorified man, and he receives the Spirit of God a second time, not for himself, but to send him down here to baptize those 120 believers into one body, to indwell each one, and to fill the house where they were sitting.
Therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted there, we have Him an exalted, glorified man now.
He receives of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost. He has shed forth this which he now see in here.
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For David is not ascended into the heavens, but he saith himself. The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit down on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.
What a message, therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus.
Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter, and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, What shall we do? Is there any hope?
For us, we have crucified our Messiah. God has raised him, He has exalted him, and now the Spirit of God has been sent down.
What shall we do?
The door of repentance is open to them.
Peter said unto them, Repent.
And be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift.
Of the Holy Ghost.
For the promise is unto you, and to your children you remember.
When Pilate took the water in the basin and he washed his hands before the multitude in Matthew, and he said, I am innocent of the blood of this just person, and they all cried out his blood beyond us and on our children.
Now here's God's answer to that. They had put themselves as guilty under the blood of Christ. They killed him, and they put their children under that same guilt. The promise is unto you and to your children.
God will lift that curse, as it were, and bring in blessing based upon the work that that blessed One did. The promise is unto you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day they were added.
Unto them about 3000 souls.
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles, doctrine and fellowship.
And in breaking of bread, and in prayers, and fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
And all that believed were together, and had all things common, and sold their possessions and goods, imparted them to all men, as every man had need. And they continue in daily with 1 accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. I noticed this last, and the Lord added daily.
To the church daily, such as should be saved.
3000 brought in 120th at the beginning, 3000 added later. In the 5th chapter it says the number had swelled to 5000.
And.
Then I want to turn now to the 7th chapter. 7th chapter, we have the first Christian martyr. We have the last offer of pardon to Jerusalem, that guilty city.
They had received many messages of pardon, offering of pardon through Peter and the other apostles. And now we have Stephen.
And it begins then, said the high priest. Are these things so?
Says in verse 14 of chapter 6 these false witnesses, verse 13, they set up false witnesses which said this man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against his holy place and the law.
For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
And all that sat in the Council.
Looks looking steadfastly on him, This was Stephen.
Saw his face as it had been.
The face of an Angel.
Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And he said, men, brethren, and fathers, hearken the God of glory.
Appeared unto our father Abraham.
This, this recounting of the history of his people he knew it quite well, goes through the whole history, starts out with the God of glory appearing to father Abraham, the man of faith. Now let's go to the end of his message.
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Verse 51 and.
This is when he was a man full of the Holy Spirit and he's boldly proclaiming this message to these unbelieving Jews. It was their last opportunity to receive the Lord Jesus as their Savior. Verse 51, he says to them, ye stiff necked.
And uncircumcised in heart and ears.
Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, as your Father's did, So do ye. Which of the Prophets hath not your Father's persecuted? And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just One.
Whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers, who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he being full of the Holy Ghost, he is a model Christian for this present day of grace.
This chapter begins with the God of glory appearing to Abraham, and now he is filled with the Holy Ghost, and he looks up. It's a picture of the true Christian posture. What ought to characterize us as we go through this scene?
In keeping with the heavenly calling and position that we've been brought into, associated, linked with, united to that man in the glory so that our portion is on high with him.
He being full of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Ghost was sent down to fill us with Christ.
And he was full of the Holy Spirit, and he was bringing before them and reaching their consciences and seeking to bring them to repentance.
They wouldn't have it. He looked up steadfastly into heaven as the proper posture.
In Acts 1 The the voice to these men of Galilee was the men of Galilee. Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner.
But this is the posture that is the proper posture for the Christian not to be looking around, not to be looking down, not to be looking within, but to be looking up to the man in the glory. Oh, how many a problem that we wrestle with and that causes us consternation of heart and fears oftentimes and distress and.
Robs us of communion and fellowship. Would be dispelled in a moment.
If we would do what Stephen did here. Looked up.
He looked up steadfastly into heaven.
I think in the new translation it says he fixed his eyes upon heaven.
That's what we ought to do.
Fix our eyes upon heaven. The Jews did not have a heavenly hope or a heavenly portion. Theirs was an earthly religion. To talk about the judeo-christian tradition is to just muddy the water.
Christianity is altogether different. It's a system of faith all the way through.
We see Jesus as crowned with glory and honor. How do you see him? By faith.
He looked steadfastly into heaven and saw. What did he see there? He saw the glory of God.
The glory of God.
When we can see the glory of God and see what God is doing and how He is over everything and, and He is, His purposes will ripen fast and He will bring to pass what He determines will happen. Down here all is in control.
And that scene of glory above, nothing disturbs it. No events of earth disturb that scene of glory.
He saw the glory of God.
What else did he see? And Jesus.
He doesn't see him seated yet or now.
But standing on where? On the right hand of God. Standing on the right hand of God, the place of authority and power. When he ascended, Matthew 28. He says, All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth.
And all these events that the the shootings in Oklahoma, in the, not Oklahoma, but in the.
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Colorado in that school was God asleep though.
He used it for the salvation of many souls.
Some had to give their lives, but many have been saved because of it.
He maketh the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder thereof he restraints.
He looked up and he saw the glory of God. He fixed his eyes steadfastly on heaven.
And saw the glory of God and Jesus standing.
On the right hand of God.
I have two thoughts on his standing. In the later chapters of Hebrews it says he sat down on the right hand of God.
His session seated in the right hand of God is in contrast with the ironic priests in the Old Testament, never sitting down. There was no chair in the temple, there was no chair in the Tabernacle. They were standing always offering of the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when he sat down, it was the token that the work of redemption, the work of atonement, was finished.
And God was glorified. But here the thought is different.
First of all, he's standing the last offer to Jerusalem, where he was crucified outside the gate.
Is being given to them by the Holy Spirit. Stephen being full of the Holy Spirit. It was the Spirit of God. The Father had witnessed to them. The Son had witnessed to them. Now they're getting the witness of the Holy Spirit.
All three persons of the Trinity giving them their opportunity to repent.
Jesus is standing.
To see what their response would be.
The other thought, it's a secondary thought that I've had, is he stood to welcome the first Christian martyr into his presence.
And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened.
That's characteristic of Christianity.
The heavens are open now. There's a man there, He's entered there, and he's there on our behalf, and we're associated with him. And the Spirit of God here below links us, unites us to that man in the glory.
And if we're filled with the Holy Spirit, we'll be so taken up with those things if you then be risen with Christ, Paul says in Colossians 3. Seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your mind, your affections on things above.
Not on things on the earth, for you're dead and your life is hidden, Christ in God.
I see the heavens opened.
And the Son of man, standing on the right hand of God.
What a testimony. What a witness.
And they wouldn't have it. They cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with 1 accord.
And cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet. His name was Saul.
There you have Saul. Saul.
One who became the apostle Paul.
He received.
The clothes of those that were Stoney, Stephen.
And they stoned Stephen while he was calling upon God.
And saying Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Notice the word God is in italics. It's not really in the Greek. It's literally the stone Stephen calling upon. You need to say who he was calling upon. You could either say God or the Lord. And he says Lord Jesus. He's talking to the Lord Jesus.
Mr. Darby renders that praying as it's the word calling upon.
He was praying, doesn't say whether he was praying to God or to the Lord Jesus, but he calls Lord Jesus.
And he says, receive my spirit.
And he kneeled down, cried with a loud voice. Lord, lay not this into their charge.
How like his master?
Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.
Lordly not the sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Receive my spirit.
And everyone of those that died in that school disaster, who were the Lords?
Her spirit was received.
Into his presence.
All joy for them.
Hard for those left back here.
What a story.
Christianity.
Is an out of the world condition of things. Eternal life and fellowship with the Son and with the Father. Knowing the Father, knowing the Son, knowing our sins are all gone, knowing that we have eternal life, knowing that we have the certainty of heaven, knowing that we are a heavenly people and to have our gaze steadfastly fixed in heaven and opened heavens now. And what's up? There is a man.
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In the glory of God.
This chapter that begins with the God of glory ends with the man in the glory of God, and we too linked to that man by the Spirit of God. 295 In closing 295 Holy Savior, we adore these. Seated on the throne of God, soon in glory, all before thee shall proclaim thy praise abroad.
Thou art worthy. We were ransomed by that blood.